Mass Effect: Savior
by Ahrotahn
Summary: Humanity's first Spectre is a man with a complicated past, but he is the only hope for the future. He will rely on his comrades to help him navigate the treacherous currents of the hunt for the rogue Spectre Saren. Will Commander Shepard be the galaxy's savior, or the simply the first victim of the dark conspiracy threatening to engulf it?
1. Chapter 1

_Hello all, and welcome to my first try at a novelization of what has to be my all-time favorite series. Naturally, all rights and characters belong to Bioware, except for segments entirely improvised by me. Please let me know what you think!_

Chapter 1

Commander Richard Shepard pulled his gaze away from one of the SSV Normandy SR-1's viewports and headed for the bridge. He had slightly tanned skin, short brown hair, and strong features, with a firm jaw and high cheekbones. His eyes were large, almond-shaped, and rich brown in color. On his forehead, a scar, earned during the Skyllian Blitz, traced a faint line over his right eye. He was not overly tall, standing precisely six feet, but he was broad of chest and shoulder, giving him an imposing presence. He wore moderately thick armor, plates of black ceramic and carbon composite, the joints kept flexible but strong through so-called "superfibers." A bright red stripe, bordered with thinner white stripes on either side, ran down his right arm. That stripe indicated his rank as Commander and position as leader of the ground team. On his chest was a small, simple emblem, easy to overlook, but possibly the most important mark on the armor. The emblem read simply, "N7." This seemingly meaningless combination of a letter and a number was in fact part of the Earth Systems Alliance's vocational coding, and in that system, Shepard's code was rare indeed. N7 was the designation for the best of the best. "Code N-Special Forces, Proficiency 7-Maximum." N7 meant that the human wearing that mark was among the best warriors the species had to offer. There were precious few alive.

Attached via small magnetic fields and lightened by mass effect fields, no less than four different weapons adorned Shepard's already imposing figure. His sniper rifle, so thoroughly compacted that it seemed only a rectangular box when not extended for combat, rested on his left shoulder, while his shotgun attached to the small of his back in an oval shape. On his right shoulder was his his assault rifle, significantly less collapsed to allow for a swifter draw in combat, and at his right hip rested his favorite weapon, a heavy pistol. While the old saying, "every Marine is a rifleman," was still true, and Shepard was quite a good shot, he had paid special attention to the pistol. It was smaller and lighter, which allowed him to use his biotic and tech abilities more easily, since he could still fire effectively with just one hand. He had earned his Pistol Expert medal back in basic, and the seven extra rungs in the medal's chain attested to the fact that he had kept his skills sharp: each one represented a consecutive year of achieving the rank of expert. Even without firearms, he was hardly vulnerable; he had both the military tech applications on his omni-tool, ranging from hacking programs to disrupt enemy communicaions and technology to systems that released powerful electrical discharges, and his psychokinetic 'biotic' abilities to fall back on, to say nothing of his expert-level ranking in hand-to-hand combat, courtesy of his stint at the famed ICA, the Interplanetary Combatives Academy where N7s trained.

Sliding past crewmembers as he moved through the Combat Information Center and past the galaxy map navigation tool, he looked ahead to the bridge. Looking over the pilot's shoulder was a tall, intimidating form in red armor: the turian Spectre, Nihlus Kryik. Shepard moved to stand beside him. The turian stood significantly taller than Shepard's six feet, and may as well have been a statue. Shepard had only spoken to him a few times in the week prior to the Normandy's official launch when the whole crew was gathered together to meet each other, but he tried to keep his mind open. He had never really worked with aliens before, and it required some getting used to, although he had learned a great deal about other species in his training.

Turians were one of the three species represented on the Citadel Council, the highest political authority in the galaxy, along with the monogendered-female asari and the amphibian salarians. They were generally humanoid in shape: bipeds with two arms and a head containing the brain and sensory organs. Other than that basic outline, though, they were quite different. Their three fingers and toes on each limb were tipped with talons, and their mouths were filled with razor-sharp teeth, with odd flanged 'mandibles' on either side of the mouth. Their skin was hard, with metal incorporated into it to protect turians from the radioactive sun on their homeworld, leading to the nickname 'skullfaces,' and the males had long fringes, collections of spines that extended off the back of the head. All in all, they most closely resembled a mixture of a human and a predatory 'raptor' dinosaur. They were known as the most military of the Council species, providing the majority of the Citadel Fleet as well as ground forces, and famed for their discipline and dedication. It was a favorite saying that 'you'll only see a turian's back once he's dead.' This mentality stemmed from a culture that valued the group over the individual, with all turians serving in the military or some other public service capacity for several years, starting at age 15. Turians had been the first alien species humanity had encountered, and it hadn't been pretty. In 2157, the turians had opened fire on human explorers unwittingly breaking galactic law, and it had quickly escalated into a full-on conflict, called the First Contact War by humans and the Relay 314 Incident by turians.

Nihlus seemed polite enough, if intensely focused on something he had not spoken of. In spite of the lingering tensions between turians and humans—courtesy of the First Contact War—Shepard had learned to respect the turians during his study of alien tactics and training at the ICA. Best to judge him on his actions, not his species.

The Normandy approached the massive tuning fork-shaped hulk of the Charon Relay, humanity's gateway to the rest of the galaxy. Shepard considered the simple, elegant form of the key to long-distance space travel for a moment before they jumped through. In a matter of seconds, the ship dropped out of the strange, almost tunnel-like passage and back into space as they knew it.

"Thrusters: check. Navigation: check. Internal emissions sink engaged. All systems are online. Drift…just under 1500K." The pilot could not keep a note of smug pride out of his voice. When the crew had met, everyone had quickly latched onto his old nickname, Joker, because of his constant, sarcastic humor. Ironically, the nickname had been mocking his serious demeanor when first bestowed on him, but now it was used without irony. And there was no denying that Joker was one of the best, if not _the_ best, pilot in the Alliance.

"1500 is good. Your captain will be pleased," was all Nihlus said before turning and heading out of the bridge.

Joker watched him leave out of the corner of his eye, and when he was out of earshot, grumbled, "I hate that guy."

Sitting in the co-pilot's seat was Shepard's direct subordinate on the ground team, Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. "Nihlus gave you a compliment, so you hate him," he said with a raised eyebrow. The easygoing Lieutenant had quickly become everybody's friend in the week prior to the Normandy's launch. He and Shepard shared a unique connection, being the only two biotics on the ship, blessed with the ability to command mass effect fields with their minds and use them to achieve seemingly magical effects in combat.

"Remember to zip up your jumpsuit on the way out of the bathroom? That's good. I just jumped us halfway across the galaxy and hit a target the size of a pinhead, so that's incredible!" Joker shot back. Shepard couldn't help but chuckle. "Besides, Spectres are trouble. I don't like having him on board. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid," Kaidan obliged. "The Council helped fund this project. They have a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"Yeah, that is the _official_ story. But only an idiot believes the official story."

Shepard thought briefly. Kaidan had a point, but a Spectre? You sent diplomats to keep an eye on your investment, not one of the agents entrusted with the power to work above the law. "They don't send Spectres on shakedown runs," he admitted.

"So there's more going on here than the captain's letting on," Joker stated triumphantly.

Before Shepard or Kaidan could say anything else, the intercom buzzed, and Captain Anderson's deep voice rang out. "Joker, status report."

"Just cleared the mass relay. Stealth systems engaged, everything looks solid," Joker reported.

"Good. Find a comm buoy and link us into the network. I want mission reports relayed to Alliance brass before we reach Eden Prime."

"Aye aye, captain. Better brace yourself; I think Nihlus is headed your way."

Anderson's displeasure at that last line was obvious. "He's already here, Lieutenant. Tell Commander Shepard to meet me in the comm room for debriefing."

Joker turned to Shepard. "You get all that, Commander?"

Shepard nodded. "The captain sounds upset."

"Yeah, well, is it just me, or does the captain always sound pissed off?" Joker shrugged.

"Only when he's talking to you, Joker," Kaidan joked as Shepard headed towards the comm room in the aft of the ship. He passed Corporal Jenkins, the other member of his ground team, talking to Doctor Chakwas, the medical officer. They seemed to be discussing exactly what Kaidan and Joker had been: how odd it was to bring a Spectre on a shakedown trip to Eden Prime. Shepard passed them by and went through the door that led to the comm room, walking down a long corridor.

He finally reached the round room and saw Nihlus at the back, looking at a holo of Eden Prime. He turned at the sound of Shepard's entrance, and his flanged mandibles moved slightly; expressive by turian standards, but Shepard had not had enough exposure to them to have a good sense for how to read their plated faces. "Commander Shepard. I was hoping you would get here first. It gives us a chance to talk."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "I thought Captain Anderson was here with you."

"He ran downstairs to pick up his datapad." Nihlus looked back at the holo for a moment. "I'm interested in this world we're going to, Eden Prime. I've heard it's quite beautiful." He gestured at the holo behind him. "It certainly seems that way."

"They say it's a paradise, sir." Shepard answered, making sure to stay formal with this important guest.

Nihlus began to pace. "Yes, a paradise: serene, tranquil, safe. Eden Prime has become something of a symbol for your people. Proof that humanity can not only establish colonies across the galaxy but also defend them. But how safe is it really?"

Shepard's eyes narrowed in concern. "Do you know something?" he asked, realizing it came out a bit more confrontationally than he intended.

Nihlus had apparently caught that, and his voice was conciliatory. "Your people are still newcomers, Shepard. The galaxy can be a very dangerous place. I wonder: is the Alliance truly ready for this?"

As Nihlus finished, Captain Anderson entered the room. "I think it's time we told the Commander what's really going on."

Nihlus nodded. "This mission is far more than a simple shakedown run."

Shepard shrugged. "I figured there was something you weren't telling us." Something in Nihlus' eyes seemed to indicate some sort of approval to Shepard.

"We're making a covert pickup on Eden Prime," Anderson explained. "That's why we needed the stealth systems operational."

"There must be some reason you didn't tell me about this, Captain," Shepard replied, his tone making his thoughts clear: _What's so secret you can't even tell your XO about it?_

"This comes down from the top. Information strictly on a need-to-know basis. A research team on Eden Prime unearthed some kind of beacon during an excavation." He paused. "It was Prothean."

Shepard's mind reeled. _The Protheans…creators of the Citadel and the relays…the source of humanity's knowledge of the mass effect, courtesy of the Mars archive._ "Prothean…holy…cow," he breathed, only barely catching the curse about to leave his mouth.

"Indeed. All our technology today is based on Prothean discoveries," Nihlus said, agreeing with the Commander's sentiment.

"This is big, Shepard. The last time humanity made a discovery like this, it jumped our technology forward at least two hundred years. But Eden Prime doesn't have the necessary facilities to handle something like this. We need to take it to the Citadel for proper study."

"Obviously, this goes beyond mere human interests, Commander. This discovery could affect every species in Citadel space," Nihlus said, a bit more firmly than usual.

"Definitely," Shepard agreed. "So you're here to help me recover it? Extra hands on the ground are always welcome."

"The beacon is not the only reason I'm here, Shepard." Nihlus seemed almost like he was smiling.

"He's also here to evaluate you," Anderson explained.

Shepard chuckled. "Guess that explains why I keep bumping into him every time I turn around." His face than turned more serious. "But what is he evaluating me for?"

"Humanity has been pushing for this for a long time. We want a larger role in shaping interstellar policy. We want more say with the Citadel Council. The Spectres represent the Council's power and authority. If they accept a human into their ranks, it shows how far the Alliance has come."

Nihlus picked up before Shepard could react. _Me…a Spectre?_ "You held off an enemy assault during the Blitz single-handed. You showed not only courage, but also incredible skill." Shepard nodded, doing his best to conceal his emotions. _The Blitz…it always comes back to that shithole…_ "That's why I put your name forward as a candidate for the Spectres."

Shepard was confused. "Why would a turian want a human in the Spectres?"

"Not all turians resent humanity," Nihlus explained. "Some of us see the potential of your species. We see what you have to offer to the galaxy, and to the Spectres. We are an elite group. It's rare to find an individual with the skills we seek. I don't care that you're human. I only care that you can get the job done."

Shepard still had some misgivings. Would he have to resign his post? "I assume this is good for the Alliance?" he asked Anderson.

"Earth needs this, Shepard. We're counting on you," he replied.

"I need to see your skills for myself, Commander," Nihlus informed him. "Eden Prime will be the first of several missions together."

Anderson nodded. "As we told you on Earth, you'll be in charge of the ground team. Secure the beacon and get it onto the ship ASAP. Nihlus will accompany you to observe the mission."

Shepard nodded. "Just give the word, Captain."

Anderson smiled. "We should be getting close to Eden—"

Joker's voice interrupted them over the intercom. "Captain! We've got a problem!"

Anderson scowled and turned towards the speaker. "What's wrong, Joker?"

"Transmission from Eden Prime, sir! You better see this!"

"Put it up on screen, Joker," the captain ordered. Shepard and Nihlus waited with bated breath as the image flickered to life. The camera recording shook violently as it showed Alliance marines firing wildly at an unseen enemy. The footage was clearly of a pitched battle. The soldier responsible for setting up the transmitter was cut down in the middle of requesting evac, but a horrifying sound led whoever had picked up the camera to slowly turn towards its source. There was a brief image that looked almost like a black hand reaching down from the sky, like a bitter god passing judgment. Then the shooting started again, the camera spun wildly, then collapsed into static.

"Everything cuts out after that. No comm traffic at all. Just goes dead. There's nothing."

"Reverse and hold at 38.5," Anderson ordered the computer responsible for playback. The image jumped to the brief look at the strange _thing_ in the sky. While it had seemed to be a hand in the instant it was onscreen, in freeze-frame it looked more like a spread of tentacles from some nightmarish Lovecraftian creature, red lightning jumping between the metal and the clouds. Anderson shook his head. "Status report!" he barked at Joker.

"Seventeen minutes out, Captain. No other Alliance forces in the area."

"Take us in, Joker, fast and quiet. This mission just got a lot more complicated."

Nihlus turned, already moving for the exit. "A small strike team can move quickly without drawing too much attention. It's our best chance to secure the beacon."

"Grab your gear and meet us in the cargo hold," Anderson said over his shoulder to the departing Spectre, then he turned to Shepard. "Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up, Commander. You're going in."

Shepard looked at the strange ship on the screen one last time, then nodded and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Shepard, flanked by Jenkins and Kaidan, entered the cargo hold. Nihlus was already there, giving his weapons a final check. Anderson was there, too, and he turned to the team. "Your team's the muscle in this operation, Commander. Go in quiet and head for the dig site."

"What about survivors, Captain?" Kaidan asked.

"I know you've got medic training, Lieutenant, but helping survivors is a secondary objective. The beacon's your top priority." Shepard nodded, his face grim. He didn't like it, but he knew it was the right choice. They weren't being ordered to ignore civilians, after all; there would be time later to render aid.

"Approaching drop point one," Joker's voice came over the intercom.

"Nihlus! You're coming with us?" Jenkins asked as the turian Spectre made a final check of his shotgun.

"I move faster on my own!" the turian yelled over the rushing winds as the hold opened. Then he ran out of the hold, dropping down to a nearby hill.

"Nihlus will scout out ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission. Otherwise, I want radio silence!"

"We'll have his back, Captain!" Shepard announced, drawing his pistol.

They reached the second drop point and Anderson saluted. "The mission's yours now, Shepard! Good luck!"

The squad dropped out of the hold, Kaidan and Shepard using their biotics to slow their descent while Jenkins fired small thrusters integrated into his armor to achieve the same effect. As they reached the surface, Kaidan drew his own pistol and Jenkins pulled his assault rifle off of his back. Shepard motioned them both to huddle as the Normandy jetted away. "Okay, men, here's the plan. Jenkins, you're on point. Kaidan, cover the rear. If either of us takes some fire or we come across civilians, do what you can for them without slowing down. And above all, be careful. We still don't know who's responsible for this attack."

Both men nodded and the squad began to move out. Shepard noticed some odd shapes on the ground, and took a closer look. He wished he hadn't. They were human bodies, burnt almost into skeletons. He shook his head, clearing away the bad memories of Mindoir and the Blitz. There was nothing they could do for these people now.

They moved through a small opening in the underbrush, finding a downward slope on the other side. They moved cautiously down, stopping behind a large rock that afforded them cover and a view of the path further along. Seeing no movement, Shepard motioned Jenkins to head down to where the slope met the path out from the base of the hill, covering his and Kaidan's moves down. Jenkins had no sooner cleared the cover at the foot of the hill than two drones of a design unfamiliar to Shepard, little more than oval bodies with guns slung underneath like probosci of giant insects, shot out from behind a rock and opened fire. Jenkins had Alliance-standard shield technology, capable of withstanding multiple rounds from all standard Council small arms, but the unusual guns seemed to practically ignore them. Shepard and Kaidan leapt out, pistols blazing in a desperate attempt to cover their squadmate as Jenkins' body jerked from the impact of whatever rounds the drones fired. Shepard opened his omni-tool, which appeared as a glowing orange sheath around his left arm and hand, and ran his overload program, a wireless-transfer blast of electricity designed to short out shield emitters and synthetics like the drones. The sparks blasted the two nearest drones while Kaidan's biotics flung the other into the rocks with enough force to reduce it to shrapnel.

Kaidan sprinted to Jenkins' motionless body, checking for a pulse. He looked up and shook his head sadly. "Ripped right through his shields. He never had a chance."

Shepard sighed. "Damn it. We'll see that he receives a proper service once the mission is complete, but I need you to stay focused." _Worry later, work now. Don't stop to count the bodies you leave behind_…

"Aye aye, sir," Kaidan nodded determinedly.

They fought through the trees, taking out a few more of the strange drones. As they cleared the trees, they saw a female soldier in white-and-red armor running their direction at full sprint, chased by drones. She turned and dove, rolling into a crouch facing back the way she had come, taking the pair of drones out with well-aimed pistol shots. After only a pause for breath, she leapt up and spun behind a rock, holstering her pistol and drawing her assault rifleover one shoulder. As Shepard and Kaidan moved to support her, they noticed a pair of humanoid synthetics. The white-plated machines had three-fingered hands and the main feature of their heads were what looked like large flashlights, presumably optical sensors. As they watched, the synthetics took a wounded colonist and laid him over a strange tripod. Suddenly, an enormous spike extended from it, impaling the colonist with a sickening sound. That cruel job done, they turned and raised their weapons at the human intruders. Kaidan and Shepard returned fire with their pistols, and the woman stepped out from behind the rock and hit them in the flank with her rifle, confusing the synthetics as an unexpected crossfire ripped them apart.

With the enemy taken down, she stepped towards Shepard as he headed for her. "Thanks for your help, Commander," she said, noting the stripe on his arm. "I didn't think I was going to make it. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, sir?"

Shepard nodded. "Are you wounded, Williams?"

"A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious. The others weren't so lucky." She shook her head. "We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit. We tried to get off a distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since.

"Where's the rest of your squad?" Shepard asked, hoping the answer wasn't what he feared.

"We tried to double back to the beacon, but we walked right into an ambush. I don't think any of the others…I think I'm the only one left, sir."

She looked just like Shepard imagined he had after the Blitz, when much of his squad suffered the same fate. He did his best to console her with the words he'd been offered. "This isn't your fault, Williams. You couldn't have done anything to save them." _Not that that helped me much then…_

She nodded. "Thanks, sir. We held our position as long as we could. Until the geth overwhelmed us."

The name sent fear racing like a dark poison through Shepard and Kaidan's veins. "These are geth?" Shepard asked, his voice tense. "You're sure?"

Williams nodded grimly. "As much as I can be. They don't look like any military mech in standard service, and they look a lot like the diagrams in my galactic history books."

Kaidan spoke up. "The geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in almost three hundred years. Why are they here now?"

Ashley shrugged. "They must be here for the beacon. The dig site is close, just over that rise. It might still be there."

Shepard set his jaw. Geth would make formidable enemies, and he needed as many advantages as he could get. He'd been dealt a bad hand with the loss of Jenkins, but now the cards seemed to be falling his way. "We could use your help, Williams. One of my squad didn't fare so well against the geth, unfortunately." _Following my orders…_

Ashley nodded and hefted her assault rifle. "Aye aye, sir. It's time for payback."

They moved towards the dig site, engaging another geth unit. With the advantage of surprise and superior cover, they quickly decimated the synthetics, Kaidan and Shepard's electrical overloads annihilating circuitry with brutal efficiency. As they arrived inside the walls around the dig site, their hearts sank. The beacon was not there. "This is the dig site. The beacon was right here," Ashley said, sounding like she was trying to convince them she hadn't made a mistake. "It must have been moved."

"By who? Our side, or the geth?" Kaidan asked.

"Hard to say. Maybe we'll know more after we check out the research camp," Ashley responded.

"Think anyone got out of here alive?" Shepard asked grimly.

"If they were lucky. Maybe hiding up in the camp," Ashley told him.

Nihlus' voice crackled in Shepard's ear. "Change of plans, Commander. There's a small spaceport up ahead. I'm going to check it out. I'll meet you there."

"Roger that," Shepard responded. "Come on. We need to keep going."

The squad reached the camp, moving carefully, looking for an ambush. They did not expect it to come in the way it did, however. The enormous spikes began to shrink back down, depositing their victim on the ground. Rather than falling like corpses, however, the bodies stood, changed into semi-mechanical monstrosities with grey flesh and glowing blue eyes. They charged at the squad, fingers turned to claws, shrieking from ruined lungs and throats. Shepard pulled out his shotgun, ripping into the flesh of the oncoming husks, tearing them apart and finally delivering the peace of death. Shaken, they moved into the camp, hoping for answers.

Finding the two surviving scientists had been helpful in that they now knew where the beacon was: the small spaceport Nihlus had mentioned. However, they could provide no further information about the attack or the massive ship. As they left the encampment, a loud shot echoed from somewhere ahead. Shepard had a brief, very bad feeling at hearing it, but it was forgotten as they crested a hill and saw the gigantic dreadnought with their own eyes. The part that was hidden before was long and tapering. Shepard could not help but imagine it as an enormous cuttlefish. The thought disturbed him. The odd ship, in spite of its size, had somehow landed on the planet. Ordinarily the largest spacecraft did not land on planets; the amount of energy required to power a mass effect field strong enough for them to lift off was prohibitively huge. The monstrous ship must have had a mass effect core of unimaginable size, for as they watched, it lifted off and vanished into the sky.

They moved further on, gunning down a squad of geth and several husks before they reached the spaceport nearby. As they hit the top of the ramp, Shepard's unease returned, and now he saw the source: Nihlus lay on the ground, blue blood leaking from the wreckage that remained of the top of his head. A powerful weapon had made that wound at short range. The kind of weapon that might have fired the shot he heard.

Shepard was bending down to examine the fallen Spectre when noises came from nearby. Immediately, the squad had weapons out and covering the crates nearby. They heard a frightened sound, and man appeared. "Wait! Don't shoot! I'm one of you! I'm human!"

Shepard shook his head in annoyance. "Sneaking up on us like that nearly got you killed."

"I—I'm sorry! I was hiding. From those creatures. My name's Powell. I saw what happened to that turian. The other one shot him!"

Shepard was confused. "Slow down. I need to know how Nihlus died."

"The other one got here first. He was waiting when your friend showed up. Your friend called him 'Saren.' I think they knew each other. Your friend seemed to relax. He let his guard down…and Saren killed him. Shot him right in the back! I'm just lucky he didn't see me behind the crates."

Shepard digested that for a moment. Something was very wrong here. "We were told a Prothean beacon was brought to the spaceport. Where is it?"

"It's over on the other platform. Probably where that guy Saren was headed. He hopped on the cargo train right after he killed your friend. I knew that beacon was trouble. Everything's gone to hell since we found it. First that damn mother ship showed up. Then the attack. They killed everyone. Everyone! If I hadn't been behind the crates, I'd be dead, too!"

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "How come you're the only one who survived? And—come to think of it, didn't that man Cole mention that someone named Powell was his smuggling contact on the docks…"

The cargo train headed for the platform where the beacon had been moved to. Ashley shook her head. "That asshole. Stealing grenades probably cost some of my men their lives! And he survives because he's lazy…just not fair."

"True, but at this point we have to focus on that beacon," Shepard said.

As the train pulled in, numerous geth turned to look at them. As the squad opened fire, Shepard noticed a cylinder on the ground nearby. A beeping cylinder, large, with a counter that looked to be going down… "Shit!" Shepard swore. "They've got bombs set up! Cover me while I defuse them!" They swept through the area, Ashley laying down covering fire while Kaidan used his omni-tool's combat applications to keep the geth down. Shepard raced from bomb to bomb, deactivating them as he went. In only a few minutes, both the bombs and the geth were dealt with.

From there, they headed towards the bay where the beacon was located. A few more geth and husks attempted to ambush them, but the combined fire of the squad made short work of them, and they stood before the ancient technology. For such an important artifact, the beacon was fairly plain. It was a tall, thin rod, almost like an airplane wing, with an angled base that sleeved the bottom few feet. There were a few prominent cracks leaking green light at several points on its body.

Shepard activated his radio. "Normandy, the beacon is secure. Request immediate evac. We'll need a quarantine squad on this tech. Oh, and one of the marines from the garrison here joined us. She needs a ride out of here."

Behind him, Kaidan and Ashley were marveling at the beacon, which seemed to be glowing slightly. Kaidan turned to Shepard, but Ashley's curiosity was piqued. She moved closer, but suddenly the beacon flared and she began to stagger towards it as though being pulled. Shepard saw it over Kaidan's shoulder and ran to help, grabbing her and flinging her away. Unfortunately, this meant that the beacon's inexorable pull switched to him. He struggled against it, but it was no use. He felt himself lifted into the air, and horrifying images forced their way into his head. As the vision ended, the beacon exploded, flinging Shepard's unconscious body to the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_A city, enormous and strong. People everywhere…and then, with no warning, horror. Explosions. Death. Chaos. Ships similar to the one he'd seen on Eden Prime decimating entire planets of organics. The Citadel engulfed in fire. _

_Extinction._

Shepard snapped awake, breathing heavily. He heard Williams from somewhere nearby. "Doctor! Doctor Chakwas! I think he's waking up!"

Shepard groaned as he pulled himself into a sitting position. The older woman walked over. "You had us worried there, Commander," she said, her cultured British accent full of relief. "How are you feeling?"

"Head hurts, but nothing serious. How long was I out?"

Shepard nearly gaped when he heard the answer. "About fifteen hours. Something happened down there with the beacon, I think."

"You could say that," Shepard said with a dry chuckle.

"It's my fault. I must have triggered some kind of security field when I approached it. You had to push me out of the way," Ashley said guiltily.

Shepard didn't much like the way everyone was talking about the beacon. Something about their tones suggested something more was wrong than just his unconsciousness. "And the beacon? Where is it now? What happened to it?"

Ashley looked down. "The beacon…exploded. A system overload, maybe. The blast knocked you cold. The Lieutenant and I carried you back to the ship."

Shepard gave a wry grin. "I appreciate not being left there."

"Physically, you're fine. But I noticed some unusual brain activity: abnormal beta waves. I also noticed an increase in your rapid eye movement, signs typically associated with intense dreaming," Chakwas explained.

Shepard closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I saw…" he paused, trying to make sense of it. "I'm not sure what I saw. Death. Destruction. Nothing else's really clear."

Dr. Chakwas looked concerned. "Hmm. I'd better add this to my report. It may—oh, Captain Anderson!" she was interrupted.

"How's our XO holding up, Doctor?" Anderson asked.

"All the readings look normal. I'd say the commander's going to be fine."

"Glad to hear it," Anderson nodded, then he turned to Shepard. "Shepard, I need to speak with you. In private."

Ashley saluted. "Aye aye, sir. I'll be in the mess if you need me." Chakwas silently followed her out.

Once they were gone, Anderson's face showed concern. He had first met Shepard shortly after the Blitz, when Shepard was sent to the N7 program, helping the young man deal with the trauma of what had happened on Elysium. Assigned as Shepard's mentor, he had become Shepard's surrogate father, his biological father having died years ago on Mindoir. Shepard was more than his military protégé. Shepard was family. "Sounds like that beacon hit you pretty hard, Commander. You sure you're okay?"

Shepard looked down. "You know I don't like soldiers dying under my command."

"Jenkins wasn't your fault, not any more than your men on Elysium," Anderson encouraged him. "You did a good job, Shepard."

Shepard nodded, but his eyes didn't hold the same certainty. It was a look Anderson knew well. Shepard was in his past, back on Mindoir and Elysium. "You wanted to see me in private, Captain? I assume it wasn't just to ask me how I'm doing."

Anderson sighed and clasped his hands behind his back. "I won't lie to you, Shepard. Things look bad. Nihlus is dead, the beacon was destroyed, and geth are invading. The Council's going to want answers."

A fire replaced the sadness in Shepard's eyes. "I didn't do anything wrong, Captain. Hopefully, the Council can see that."

"I'll stand behind you and your report, Shepard. You're a damned hero in my book. That's not why I'm here. It's about Saren, that other turian. Saren's a Spectre, one of the best. A living legend. But if he's working with the geth, that means he's gone rogue. A rogue Spectre is trouble. Saren's dangerous. And he hates humans."

Shepard knew that wasn't unheard of among turians, but he still wondered: "Why?"

"He thinks we're growing too fast, taking over the galaxy. A lot of aliens think that way," he admitted. "But most of them don't do anything about it besides complain. Saren has somehow allied himself with the geth. I don't know how. I don't know why. I only know it had something to do with that beacon. You were there just before that beacon self-destructed. Did you see anything? Any clue that might tell us what Saren was after?"

Shepard leaned back. This was going to be an interesting explanation. "Just before I lost consciousness, I had some kind of vision." He stopped unsure how to continue.

Anderson's eyes narrowed. "A vision? A vision of what?"

"I saw…synthetics…slaughtering people. Butchering them."

"We need to report this to the Council, Shepard."

Shepard laughed mirthlessly. "What will we tell them? That I had a bad dream?"

"We don't know what information was stored in that beacon, Shepard. Lost Prothean technology? Blueprints for some ancient weapon of mass destruction? Whatever it was, Saren took it. But I know Saren. I know his reputation, his politics. He believes humans are a blight on the galaxy. This attack was an act of war! He has the secrets from the beacon. He has an army of geth at his command. And he won't stop until he's wiped humanity from the face of the galaxy!"

"I'll find some way to take him down," Shepard promised.

Anderson shook his head. "It's not that easy. He's a Spectre. He can go anywhere, do almost anything. That's why we need the Council on our side."

"We prove Saren's gone rogue and the Council will revoke his Spectre status," Shepard offered.

"I'll contact the ambassador and see if he can get us an audience with the Council. He'll want to see us as soon as we reach the Citadel. We should be getting close. Head up to the bridge and tell Joker to bring us in to dock."

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya did her best to stay on her feet as she made her way into the med clinic. _Keelah, how did this go so bad? Keenah'Breizh, I'm sorry. At least I made the bosh'tet pay…_

Doctor Michel heard her enter and came to speak to her. "What seems to be the…" She saw a tear in the arm of the young quarian's enviro-suit and saw her lack of balance. "Quickly, lie down over here. I'll get you some antibiotics, a patch, and some medi-gel." She moved with practiced efficiency.

A few hours later, Tali sat up as she felt her fever clearing. Her arm still ached, but the patch had done its job on the breach and the medi-gel had closed the wound. The doctor came over to her. "Feeling better? Good. But how did that happen? This may not be the Presidium, but we don't tend to have much in the way of random gun violence."

Tali explained, ignoring the volus that entered the clinic. "I found evidence that a man named Saren is working with the geth. When I looked up the name, I found out he was a Spectre. I'm trying to get the information to the Council, but Saren has people after me."

Dr. Michel's eyes were wide. That wasn't quite what she expected. However, before she could respond, a breathy voice came in. "Well, miss…_ahhh_…that was quite a story." Both Dr. Michel and Tali looked at the doors to see a volus standing just inside the entrance. Volus were short, around three feet tall, and clad in mostly round enviro-suits that also served as pressure vessels away from their high-pressure, ammonia-based homeworld of Irune. These suits had to cycle air constantly, leading to the characteristic gasps that marred volus speech every few words. "_Ahhh_…I believe I know of someone who could…_ahhh_…be of some assistance. _Ahhh_…You see, I work for the Shadow Broker. _Ahhh…_Let me get you a contact…"

Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan stood behind Captain Anderson, looking uncomfortably at the political scene before them. The human ambassador to the Citadel, Donnel Udina, was a tan-skinned, older man with thinning grey hair. He was currently glaring at the holograms of three figures. The Citadel Council, the ultimate galactic political authority.

Shepard looked the holograms over, unable to read as much over hologram as he would be able to in person. There was one representative from each Council race present. Three people in command of trillions of lives. The turian councilor, Sparatus, looked much like any other turian to Shepard's untrained eye, his only distinguishing mark the dark blue paint on his face, the pattern a sign of his home colony or region.

The salarian councilor, Valern, was dressed in a hooded cloak, hiding the slender form of his body in shapeless robes. Salarians were warm-blooded amphibians, bipedal and two armed, with three fingers and toes like turians, although all of their toes faced forwards like humans'. Their heads were long and slender, with large, bulbous eyes and small, blunt cranial horns above each eye. In many ways, they most closely resembled the oldest human images of what aliens might look like, called Greys, leading some humans to speculate that the infamously science-minded salarians might have been behind the old stories of alien abductions. Salarians were short-lived, rarely living past forty, but with their hyperactive metabolism, they often accomplished more in that short span than species with thrice that time. They were widely considered the most intelligent species in the galaxy; many of the greatest scientists and inventors in Citadel history were salarians. This applied to their military doctrine as well; salarians fought with peerless espionage and crippling non-traditional attacks that crippled their enemies before they could make even a single move.

Shepard looked away from the salarian and found his eyes drawn to Tevos, the asari member of the council. The asari were a graceful race, almost identical to humans save for ridged tendrils on their head where a human would have hair and their skin color, which ranged from blue to purple. The asari were all female, and capable of mating with any species by way of an odd mixture of a mind-meld and a sort of parthenogenesis, meaning the children were always wholly asari. They also had an uncanny beauty acknowledged by all other species, even the essentially asexual salarians. Tevos was no different, dressed in a simple but elegant dress that accentuated her body without being overly demonstrative or provocative. The asari as a race were often much the same: elegant, graceful, and diplomatic. Their thousand-year lifespans made them calm and level-headed, and also gave them ample time to hone their skills in any craft. Because of this, the asari were the other major intellectual contributors to the galaxy. Militarily, their longevity made asari formidable. While they had no large standing army, their guerilla units were lifelong warriors with centuries of experience, the greenest recruit of an asari huntress likely having seen more battle than a human career soldier. They also enjoyed the advantage of being the only species with universal biotic talent, and the warriors trained theirs into lethal focus. Asari were widely considered the best individual combatants in the galaxy.

"This is an outrage! The Council would step in if the geth attacked a turian colony!" Ambassador Udina yelled at the holographic forms of the Council.

Valern looked at Udina dismissively. "The turians don't build colonies on the borders of the Terminus Systems, Ambassador."

Tevos, voice of the Council, nodded. "Humanity was well aware of the risks went you went into the Traverse."

"What about Saren? You can't ignore a rogue Spectre! I demand action!" Udina raged.

"You don't get to make demands of the Council, Ambassador," snorted Sparatus. It surely didn't help that Saren was a fellow turian.

"Citadel Security is investigating your charges against Saren. We will discuss the C-Sec findings during the hearing, not before," Tevos agreed. With that, the Council vanished.

Udina slowly turned to Captain Anderson, Shepard, Kaidan, and Ashley. "Captain Anderson. I see you brought half your crew with you," he snarled. It was clear he was not in a good mood.

Anderson kept calm. "Just the ground team from Eden Prime. In case you had any questions."

"I have the mission reports. I assume they're accurate?" he answered dismissively.

"They are. Sounds like you convinced the Council to grant us an audience," Anderson answered.

Udina sighed. "They were not happy about it. Saren's their top agent. They don't like him being accused of treason."

Shepard couldn't hold back anymore. "Saren's a threat to every human colony out there! He needs to be stopped! The Council has to listen to us!"

Udina gave him a look that made it clear he would rather Shepard go crawl in a hole. "Settle down, Commander. You've already done more than enough to jeopardize your candidacy for the Spectres. The mission on Eden Prime was a chance to prove you could get the job done. Instead, Nihlus ended up dead and the beacon was destroyed!"

Anderson jumped to his pupil's defense. "That's Saren's fault, not his!"

"Then we better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up evidence to support our accusations. Otherwise, the Council may use this as an excuse to keep you out of the Spectres. Come with me, Captain. I want to go over a few things before the hearing. Shepard, you and the others can meet us at the Citadel Tower. Top level. I'll make sure you have clearance to get in." With that, he and Anderson left the room.

Ashley shook her head in disgust. "And that's why I hate politicians."

"He does put the 'ass' in 'ambassador,' doesn't he?" Shepard noted.

Tali'Zorah felt uncomfortable as she entered Chora's Den. Dancing asari everywhere, men leering at them…and a few at her. She suppressed a shudder and made her way to the security guard at the back. "I…I have an appointment. To see Fist."

The man gave her a quick once-over glance and nodded. "Back there."

Fist was a big and ugly human man, with a flattop hairstyle and cruel face. "Miss Zorah, right? I heard you've got something useful. May I…"

She cut him off. "No. I'll only show this to the Shadow Broker himself. I've been through way too much trouble with this data already."

Fist blinked. "But the Broker…all right, Miss Zorah. Hang on a moment." He vanished into his office. He felt a bit bad about setting up such a young girl…particularly with hips like hers. Still, he could get all the girls he wanted with the offer Saren had made for the info she had. Just needed to send a message to Saren…and set up some assassins. That would take longer. He headed back out. "Good news. The Broker has agreed to see you. He'll need some time to get here, though. Feel free to wait in my club until I can tell you where the meeting will be. I'll tell security to keep an eye on you, make sure nobody tries anything." He offered the most honest smile he could manage before returning to his office.

Tali sat down on a couch in one corner. Quarians were naturally pretty good with body language, and Fist's had seemed stressed. She didn't want to trust him, but she didn't really have much choice. She sighed and settled down to wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After a short time spent learning about the Citadel, courtesy of the VI Avina, Shepard and his squad headed to the elevator that would take them to the Council Chambers. As they headed up the first small flight of stairs, he saw a blue-armored turian arguing with a red-and-black dressed one. "Saren's hiding something! Give me more time. Stall them!" the one in blue yelled.

The red-clad one scoffed. "Stall the Council? Don't be ridiculous. Your investigation is over, Garrus." With that, he turned and stalked away.

The one called Garrus shook his head in disgust, then turned towards Shepard. His mandibles flared in surprise. "Commander Shepard? Glad I got the chance to speak with you. Garrus Vakarian. I was the officer in charge of the C-Sec investigation into Saren."

"Who were you just talking to?" Shepard inquired.

Garrus sighed. "That was Executor Pallin, head of Citadel Security. My boss. He'll be presenting my findings on Saren to the Council. What little there is." His displeasure was obvious.

"Sounds like you really want to bring him down." Shepard was surprised.

"I don't trust him. Something about him…what do you humans say? 'Rubs me the wrong way.' But he's a Spectre. Everything he touches is classified. I can't find any hard evidence. Especially on such short notice," Garrus fumed.

Kaidan cut the conversation short. "I think the Council's ready for us, Commander."

Garrus nodded and stepped aside. "Good luck, Shepard. Maybe they'll listen to you."

As Shepard reached the landing before the audience platform, Anderson met him. "There you are. The hearing's already started. Come on."

As they crested the stairs, Shepard saw the Council standing at the center of the room. However, they were dwarfed by an enormous holo of Saren. The turian was somehow managing to look smug. Tevos was speaking. "The geth attack is a matter of some concern. But there is nothing to indicate Saren was involved in any way."

"The investigation by Citadel Security turned up no evidence to support your charge of treason," Sparatus added.

"An eyewitness saw him kill Nihlus in cold blood!" Udina countered.

Valern shook his head. "We read the Eden Prime reports. The testimony of one traumatized dock worker, and a smuggler at that, is hardly compelling proof."

Saren sneered. "I resent these accusations. Nihlus was a fellow Spectre, and a friend."

"That just let you catch him off guard!" Anderson shot back.

Saren's cold gaze turned to him. "Captain Anderson. You always seem to be involved when humanity makes false charges against me." He then looked at Shepard. "And this must be your protégé, Commander Shepard. The one who let the beacon get destroyed."

Shepard was surprised. Had Saren just made a key misstep? "The mission to Eden Prime was top secret. The only way you could know about the beacon is if you were there!" he argued.

Saren was prepared, though. "With Nihlus dead, his files passed on to me. I read the Eden Prime report. I was unimpressed. But what can you expect from a _human_?" He practically spat the last word.

Shepard tried to seize on that. "Saren despises humanity. That's why he attacked Eden Prime!"

"Your species needs to learn its place, Shepard!" Saren hissed back. "You're not ready to join the Council. You're not even ready to join the Spectres!"

"He has no right to say that!" Udina roared. "That's not his decision!"

"Commander Shepard's admission into the Spectres is not the purpose of this meeting," Tevos reprimanded Saren.

"This meeting has no purpose! The humans are wasting your time, Councilor. And mine."

"Saren's hiding behind his position as a Spectre! You need to open your eyes!" Shepard said desperately.

"What we need is evidence. So far, we've seen nothing," Valern pointed out.

"There is still one outstanding issue: Commander Shepard's vision. It may have been triggered by the beacon," Anderson said.

Saren scoffed. "Are we allowing dreams into evidence now? How can I defend my innocence against this kind of testimony?"

"I agree," Sparatus nodded. "Our judgments must be based on facts and logic, not wild imaginings and reckless speculation."

"Do you have anything else to add, Commander Shepard?" Valern asked.

Shepard shook his head. "You've made your decision. I can tell nothing I say will change your minds."

The Councilors looked at each other, then typed into their datapads. Tevos, as usual, spoke for them. "The Council has found no evidence of any connection between Saren and the geth. Ambassador, your petition to have him disbarred from the Spectres is denied."

"I'm glad to see justice was served," Saren said tauntingly. Shepard wondered how none of the Council could interpret his tone. _Perhaps Saren is really just that disagreeable all the time._

Udina, Anderson, and Shepard headed for a nearby open space. Once they were there, Udina turned on Anderson angrily. "It was a mistake bringing you into that hearing, Captain. You and Saren have too much history. It made the Council question our motives."

Anderson did his best to ignore the tirade. "I know Saren. He's working with the geth for one reason: to exterminate the entire human race! Every colony we have is at risk. Every world we control is in danger. Even Earth isn't safe!"

"What's our next step?" Shepard asked, focusing on a goal to keep himself moving.

Udina shook his head. "As a Spectre, he's virtually untouchable. We need to find some way to expose him."

"Run into a wall, don't bash it down. Go around. We've got to come at him sideways, find something he's not prepared for," Shepard mused.

"What about Garrus, that C-Sec investigator?" Kaidan asked. "He was arguing with the Executor, wanting more time for his report."

"Maybe he was close to finding something on Saren," Ashley suggested.

Shepard nodded. "Any idea where we could find him?"

"I have a contact in C-Sec who might be able to help. His name is Harkin," Udina offered.

"Forget it. They suspended Harkin last month, drinking on the job. I won't waste my time with that loser," Anderson answered.

"You won't have to. I don't want the Council using your past history with Saren as an excuse to ignore anything we turn up. Shepard will handle this."

"You can't just cut Captain Anderson out of this investigation!" Shepard protested.

"The ambassador's right. I need to step aside," Anderson calmed him.

Udina nodded and began to walk away. "I need to take care of some business. Captain, meet me in my office later."

Anderson shook his head. "Harkin's probably getting drunk at Chora's Den. It's a dingy little club in the lower section of the Wards."

Shepard didn't much relish the thought. "Maybe there's another way to find evidence against Saren," he offered hopefully.

Anderson thought for a moment. "You should talk to Barla Von, over in the Financial District. Rumor has it he's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"'The Shadow Broker?'" Ashley asked.

"An information dealer. Buys and sells secrets to the highest bidder. I've heard Barla Von's one of the top representatives. He might know something about Saren. But his information won't come cheap…"

Shepard and his team rode down the elevator to the C-Sec academy. Anderson's warning had been unnecessary; the Shadow Broker was apparently quite upset with Saren, and was giving away information to take him down for free. Barla Von had pointed them towards a krogan who had been hired to deal with an agent who was double-dealing for Saren. However, he'd been taken in by C-Sec because of his threats.

When Shepard stepped off the elevator, he quickly spotted the krogan. He did a double take. He'd seen krogan before, even fought a few of them, and knew they were big. But this mercenary, Urdnot Wrex, was easily the largest krogan he'd ever laid eyes on. Krogan were huge by the standards of most galactic races, typically standing a good seven feet tall at minimum and about five feet across the chest, but Wrex had to be several inches past eight feet in height and was approaching Shepard's six-foot height in breadth. Krogan were reptilian, with broad, triangular heads topped by a heavy plate of natural armor. Their eyes were set wide apart on the sides of the head, giving them an excellent field of vision, and their enormous mouths held teeth that could handle just about anything. They looked hunchbacked thanks to a camel-like hump above their shoulders, a storage center for fat in lean times on their harsh homeworld of Tuchanka, easily one of the most hostile planets in the galaxy. Their heads were forward of the hump, giving them something of a neck-less appearance, made more prominent by the styles of heavy armor most krogan wore everywhere.

Wrex's armor was the reddish-brown color of dried human blood, and his red head plate had three huge gouges, which continued down to his face. He towered over the human C-Sec officer talking to him. "Witnesses saw you making threats in Fist's bar. Stay away from him."

"I don't take orders from you," Wrex said derisively. His voice was extremely deep, and sounded as rough as if his throat was full of gravel.

"This is your only warning, Wrex!" the C-Sec officer said, frustration in his voice.

"You should warn Fist. I will kill him," Wrex promised.

"Do you want me to arrest you?!" the officer responded.

Wrex lowered his head and glared. "I want you to try." Wrex looked up and saw Shepard's interested gaze. With one last glare at the officer, he lumbered over. "Yes, human?" Smarter than he looked. He knew that Shepard was here for him.

Shepard elected to go with the direct approach. "I'm trying to take down Saren. Barla Von said you could help."

Wrex chuckled. "Barla Von is a wise man. We may share a common goal, human."

From what Barla Von and the officer had said, Shepard wasn't certain. "Enlighten me."

"I've been hired to kill the owner of Chora's Den. A human man named Fist. He did something very foolish."

Shepard put the pieces together. "Let me guess: he's the one who betrayed the Shadow Broker."

"Indeed. A quarian showed up here on the Citadel. She was on the run. She wanted to trade information for a safe place to hide, so she went to Fist. He promised to arrange a meeting between her and the Shadow Broker. Instead, he contacted Saren."

"Fist's not too smart," Shepard shook his head.

"He's just greedy. Apparently she had information linking Saren and the geth. He paid Fist a small fortune for her."

"If we can get our hands on that evidence, we can prove that Saren's a traitor!" Kaidan exclaimed. "The Council will have to listen to us."

"Any idea where she is now?" Shepard asked Wrex.

"Not sure. There was a turian in here not long ago, said he was going to follow up a lead on where she is now. You let me have Fist, she's all yours."

"I bet that was Garrus!" Ashley added.

"He left just before you showed up. Said he was going to some med clinic down on the Wards. Wanted to speak to the doctor, thought she knew where Fist was keeping the quarian."

Shepard nodded. "Welcome to the team, Wrex. Let's move out! We'll head for the clinic and see what Garrus can tell us. Hopefully he can help us narrow down the location of this quarian."

A short taxi ride later, they were outside the clinic. Shepard noticed the door had recently been hacked, and drew his pistol before opening it. The first thing he noticed was Garrus crouched behind the divider between the entryway and the clinic proper. He was sliding around the edge, getting ready to line up a shot on the next thing Shepard noticed: a gang of thugs. They were surrounding a human woman in a white lab coat. "I didn't tell anyone, I swear!" she wailed, her accent thick and French.

"That was smart, doc," the leader sneered. "Now if Garrus comes around, you stay smart. Keep your mouth shut or we'll—" At this point he noticed Shepard. He grabbed the doctor around the neck, shielding himself from Shepard with her body, and put his gun to her head. "Who are you?!" he demanded.

"Let her go!" Shepard commanded, leveling his pistol.

However, the man had no chance to respond. Garrus spun out of cover with practiced skill and put a single perfect shot through the man's head, and as he fell, he pulled the doctor to the floor with him. Shepard, seeing the men stunned by this development and without a hostage to worry about, opened fire, his squad joining in. In mere seconds, the thugs had been shredded. Shepard and his team approached the turian C-Sec agent. "Perfect timing, Shepard. Gave me a clear shot at that bastard," Garrus thanked him.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Nice shot. No margin for error, though."

Garrus shrugged. "Calculated risk. Dr. Michel, are you hurt?"

The human woman was still shaking. "No. I'm okay, thanks to you. All of you."

"I know those men threatened you. But if you tell us who they work for, we can protect you," Shepard said reassuringly.

"They work for Fist. They wanted to shut me up, keep me from telling Garrus about the quarian."

"The one I told you about, Shepard," rumbled Wrex.

"She must be able to link Saren to the geth!" Garrus said excitedly, unaware he was late to that particular party. "There's no way the Council can ignore this! Where is she?"

"Fist is keeping her under guard in his bar. He want's to make sure nothing goes wrong until he can hand her over," Dr. Michel informed them.

That was the information they needed. "We've got to hurry," Shepard said. "Time we paid Fist a visit."

"This is your show, Shepard. But I want to bring Saren down just as much as you do. I'm coming with you!"

Shepard extended a hand, which Garrus took. "Welcome aboard, Garrus."

"Fist's going to be waiting for us. We better hit him hard."

Fist appeared before Tali's booth without warning, the bodyguard stepping away. "Miss Zorah. Sorry for the short notice, but the Broker is on his way. He wants to meet you in some nearby maintenance tunnels. You should head there now. He'll be along shortly."

Tali noticed Fist was shaking. "What's wrong?"

Fist did his best to appear genuine. "Saren has found out where you are. He's going to be sending men to attack this place. You need to leave so they won't find you, and since the Broker will be arriving soon I think it's best you go to the meeting place now."

Tali looked at the humans shoving patrons out with rifles and turning tables on their sides as cover. She sighed. She couldn't stay here, no matter how little she trusted Fist's sudden information on the meeting and the decidedly dangerous location. She headed for the door.

Shepard and his team arrived outside Chora's Den and heard something uncomfortable: silence. Ordinarily, the pounding music and carousing of drunken patrons was a constant soundtrack for the area. This could only mean that Fist had indeed prepared quite a welcome.

Shepard gathered his squad outside the doors. "Okay, here's the plan. Kaidan, I want you on one side of the door. I'll take the other. Wrex, Ash, you're going to move in as soon as the door opens and secure the entrance. Garrus, use that sniper of yours and take out who you can. Ready?" Everyone nodded and moved to position. Shepard reached out and hit the console to open the door…and a volley of bullets greeted them. Ashley and Wrex's shields and armor held, though, and they entered the club, Wrex roaring as he smashed aside one of Fist's guards like a ragdoll before blasting the one behind the bar with his shotgun. A guard on the far side of the room popped up, but Garrus' rifle cracked and he fell dead, the turian every bit as good a shot as he had claimed. Ashley's assault rifle spat suppressing fire at the left side of the room, and Shepard went that way while Kaidan and Garrus backed Wrex up on the right. Shepard's expert shooting dropped two guards in cover behind tables as Ashley gunned down the man who came from around the round central bar.

In no time, they met back up with the other three at a small room with a door at the back, the way to Fist's office. They prepared for another breach, but as soon as the door opened, they saw that their enemies had no armor, weren't firing, and couldn't even hold the guns steady. "Warehouse workers…all the real guards must be dead," Garrus surmised.

"Now might be a good time to find somewhere else to work," Shepard said meaningfully.

The men glanced at each other. "Yeah. We were just leaving." They laid down their arms and bolted for the door.

The squad moved down the hallway to the door to Fist's office. They breached it as before, and even the turrets Fist had were no help. Wrex and Ashley took them out while Garrus and Shepard put non-lethal but debilitating shots on Fist. Garrus' collapsed his shields, while Shepard's shot ripped apart his left knee. Fist fell to the ground. "Wait! Don't kill me! I surrender!"

Shepard pointed his pistol at Fist's head. "Where's the quarian?" he demanded.

"She's not here! I don't know where she is!" Fist lied.

"He's no use to you, then. Let me kill him," Wrex growled.

"Wait! I don't know her exact location now, but I know where you can find her!" Fist cried desperately. "She isn't here. She said she'd only meet with the Shadow Broker himself. In person."

"Face to face? Impossible. Even I was hired through an agent," Wrex laughed.

"No one meets the Shadow Broker. Even I don't know his true identity. But she didn't know that. I told her I'd set up a meeting. But when she shows up, it'll be Saren's men who meet her. I sent her to the meeting just before you busted in!"

Shepard grabbed his collar. "Give me the location—now!"

"Here on the wards. The back alley by the markets. She's supposed to meet them in a few minutes. You can make it if you hurry."

No sooner had the words left Fist's mouth than Wrex pulled out his shotgun and fired. At point blank range, with no shields or real armor, Fist didn't have a chance. It was gruesome. Everyone gaped at Wrex for a moment, then Kaidan and Garrus said almost in unison, "What the hell are you doing?"

Wrex tucked away his shotgun. "The Shadow Broker paid me to kill him. I don't leave jobs half-done."

Shepard shook his head. "We don't kill unarmed prisoners. I'll give you a pass because of your contract with the Broker, but as long as we're working together, I won't tolerate any more of that." His voice was hard as steel. Wrex nodded.

"That quarian's dead if we don't get to her," Garrus urged. "Come on!"

Tali had been waiting for a while in the disturbing red light of the back alley for a long time, and at last she saw people coming. Her eyes narrowed. Perhaps she was just making assumptions, but she didn't see the Shadow Broker being any of the armored salarians or the turian at the front of the group. The salarians stopped—blocking any escape that direction, she noticed—and the turian approached her. "Did you bring it?" he asked.

"Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?" she demanded.

"They'll be here." He ran his hand down her side in a manner that made her supremely uncomfortable. "Where's the evidence, doll?"

She slapped his hand away. "No way. The deal's off."

At those words, she saw the salarians begin to move forward meaningfully, some of them drawing weapons. She tossed a grenade and dove behind some nearby crates as she heard gunshots ring out.

Shepard and the squad reached the stairs above the meeting place in time to see a young quarian woman in a purple hood and black, tight-fitting enviro-suit swat an armored turian's hand away and toss a grenade. It appeared she was well aware of the danger, but outnumbered and outgunned, she had no chance if the assassins weren't distracted. "Open fire!" Shepard ordered.

The assassins hadn't seemed to have considered that anyone would catch them in the act, and were unprepared for any flanking attack. In no time, they had all been cut down.

When the gunfire stopped, Tali peeked out to see a human in armor checking the turian, making sure he was dead. She came out of hiding as he turned towards her. "Fist set me up! I knew I couldn't trust him!" she raged.

Shepard raised a calming hand as he checked for any signs of damage. "Were you hurt in the fight?" As he scanned the quarian, he noticed that she had seemed smaller from a distance than she really was. Her slender, graceful build disguised the fact that she was only a few inches shorter than he was, although he assumed her helmet likely added an inch at least. Her hips were notably wide, and paired with her slim waist they gave her a curvy, hourglass figure, and her legs were similar to turians' in that the joints were arranged differently, resulting in what would be a tip-toed stance for a human. He did his best to dismiss such appraisals from his mind, instead focusing on checking for any injuries.

Tali gulped. Without guns to distract her, she was noticing details, like that the human who appeared to be leading the group was actually rather attractive. No one save for older asari knew what quarians looked like beneath their suits, but quarians were always amazed at the striking similarity of humans to their own appearance. _Probably just adrenaline and the life-saving thing,_ she assured herself. As she spoke, she found herself making an effort to sound more confident than she felt. "I know how to look after myself. Not that I don't appreciate the help. Who are you?"

"My name's Shepard. I'm looking for evidence that proves the Spectre Saren's a traitor."

Tali's heart leapt. "Then I have a way to repay you for saving my life. But not here. We need to go someplace safe."

"We should take her to the embassy, Commander. Udina will want to hear this," Kaidan suggested.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Udina shook his head as Shepard and his team entered. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many—" he turned around and gawked at the group he saw. A krogan, a turian…and then his eyes landed on Tali. His contacts had at least mentioned Garrus and Wrex working with Shepard. The quarian was unexpected. "Who's this? A quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

Shepard couldn't help but grin. "Making your day, ambassador. She has information linking Saren to the geth.

Udina seemed skeptical. "Really? Perhaps you'd better start at the beginning, Miss…?"

Tali didn't particularly care for the way Udina had said her people's name or his attitude. "My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Rayya," she said tightly.

Perhaps noting her displeasure, Udina was more diplomatic, now. "We don't see many quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?"

"I was on my Pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood."

Shepard looked over, curious. "I've never heard of this before."

"It is a tradition among my people. When we reach maturity, we leave the ships of our parents and people behind. Alone, we search the stars, only returning to the flotilla once we have discovered something of value. In this way, we prove ourselves worthy of adulthood," she explained. She was excited to have someone, anyone, who cared enough to listen to her explanation. Since leaving the fifty-thousand-ship Migrant Fleet, home to the last seventeen million quarians left since being driven from their home by the geth, she had met with almost unanimous prejudice. Seeing someone show an interest in her people was a welcome change.

"What kinds of things do you look for?" Shepard asked, now in fact-finder mode. When presented with the unknown, he very often displayed a voracious appetite for knowledge.

"It could be resources like food or fuel, or some type of useful technology. Or even knowledge that will make life on the flotilla easier. Through our Pilgrimage, we prove that we will contribute to the community, rather than being a burden on our limited resources."

Shepard was prepared to ask more, but he saw everyone giving him impatient looks. "Tell us what you found," he asked, getting things back on track.

"During my travels, I began hearing reports of geth. Since they drove my people into exile, the geth have never ventured beyond the Veil. I was curious," she admitted. "I tracked a patrol of geth to an uncharted world. I waited for one to become separated from its unit. Then I disabled it and removed its memory core."

Anderson interrupted, frowning. "I thought geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense method."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "How did you manage to preserve the memory core?"

"My people created the geth," she stated, as though that provided all the explanation needed. "If you're quick, careful, and lucky, small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean, but I salvaged something from its audio banks, with context data still in place. The geth called Saren 'the Prophet.'" She brought up her omni-tool.

Saren's unmistakable voice filled their ears. "Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"That's Saren's voice!" Anderson exclaimed. "This proves he was involved in the attack!"

"He said Eden Prime brought him closer to finding the Conduit. Do you have any idea what that means?"

"The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Some sort of Prothean device…like a weapon!"

Tali spoke up, bringing all their attention back to her. "There's more. Saren wasn't working alone." She played with her omni-tool again, and Saren's voice repeated.

This time, though, a low, female voice followed. "And one step closer to the return of the Reapers."

Udina shook his head. "I don't recognize that other voice, the one talking about Reapers."

"There's no name. The geth just called her 'the Matriarch,' so it might be an asari," Tali informed them.

"Are they some kind of new alien species?" Shepard asked.

Tali again provided the answer. "According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago. The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished!" She realized she might be getting a bit too excited. "At least, that's what the geth believed."

"Sounds a little far-fetched," Udina patronized.

"No. The vision on Eden Prime. I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers!" Shepard defended.

"The geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring the Reapers back. It says that's why he's called 'the Prophet.'"

Udina chuckled without humor. "The Council is just going to love this…"

"The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space. We have to tell them," Shepard said with conviction.

Anderson nodded. "No matter what they think about the rest of this, these audio files prove Saren's a traitor!"

"The Captain's right. We need to present this to the Council right away," Udina agreed.

"What about her? The quarian?" Ashley said roughly.

Tali bristled. "My name is Tali!" She turned to Shepard. "You saw me fight in the alley, Commander. You know what I can do. Let me come with you!"

Shepard looked interested, but paused. "I thought you were on your Pilgrimage…?"

"The Pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this?" she argued eloquently. "Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My Pilgrimage can wait."

Shepard nodded, satisfied. "I'll take all the help I can get."

Tali stepped forward, unable to keep her bubbling happiness out of her voice. "Thanks. You won't regret this."

Udina shook his head at Shepard's newest alien companion. "Anderson and I will go ahead to get things ready with the Council. Take a few minutes to collect yourself, then meet us in the Tower."

As Shepard and his squad headed up to the Council behind Captain Anderson, Saren's recorded voice washed over them. After the unknown woman spoke, Udina pointed dramatically. "You wanted proof. There it is."

Sparatus nodded. "This evidence is irrefutable, Ambassador. Our technical experts have assured us of its authenticity. Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be made to bring him in to answer for his crimes." It was a particular point of turian culture that when a subordinate erred, the one who promoted him took the most heat. Sparatus was clearly incensed by Saren's having put him in that situation.

Tevos looked troubled. "I recognize the other voice, the one speaking with Saren. Matriarch Benezia."

"Who's she?" Shepard inquired.

"I don't know how familiar you are with asari, Commander, but matriarchs are powerful asari who have entered the final stage of their lives. Revered for their wisdom and experience, they serve as guides and mentors for my people," she explained. "Matriarch Benezia is a powerful biotic, and she had many followers. She will make a formidable ally for Saren."

Valern focused on the group. "I'm more interested in the Reapers. What do you know about them?"

"Only what was extracted from the geth's memory core," Captain Anderson admitted. "The Reapers were an ancient race of machines that wiped out the Protheans. Then they vanished."

Shepard supplemented him. "The geth believe the Reapers are gods, and Saren is the prophet for their return."

"We think the Conduit is the key to bringing them back. Saren's searching for it. That's why he attacked Eden Prime," Anderson finished.

"Do we even know what this Conduit is?" Valern asked.

"Saren thinks it can bring back the Reapers. That's bad enough," Shepard declared.

Sparatus shook his head in disbelief. "Listen to what you're saying! Saren wants to bring back the machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy? Impossible. It has to be." His tone was back to its normal dismissiveness. "Where did the Reapers go? Why did they vanish? How come we've found no trace of their existence? No, if they were real, we'd have found something."

"We just did find something: the beacon's vision. I tried to warn you about Saren and you refused to face the truth. Don't make the same mistake again," Shepard retorted.

Tevos shook her head. "This is different. You proved Saren betrayed the Council. We all agree he's using the geth to search for the Conduit, but we don't really know why."

"The Reapers are obviously just a myth, Commander," Valern agreed. "A convenient lie to cover Saren's true purpose. A legend he is using to bend the geth to his will."

"Fifty thousand years ago the Reapers wiped out all galactic civilization. If Saren finds the Conduit, it _will_ happen again!" Shepard shot back, the images of the beacon's vision shooting through his head.

"Saren is a rogue agent on the run for his life. He no longer has the rights or resources of a Spectre. The Council has stripped him of his position."

Udina agreed with Shepard on one thing. "That is _not_ good enough! You know he's hiding somewhere in the Traverse! Send your fleet in!"

Valern scoffed. "A fleet cannot track down one man."

"A citadel fleet could secure the entire region. Keep the geth from attacking any more of our colonies," Udina snarled.

"Or it could trigger a war with the Terminus Systems! We won't be dragged into a galactic confrontation over a few dozen human colonies!" Sparatus countered.

Shepard wanted to make a comment about the obvious speciesism in Sparatus' statement, but another idea stopped him. "I can take Saren down," he said, pounding his fist into his hand. A calculated maneuver. Would it pay off?

Tevos smiled. "The Commander is right. There is a way to stop Saren that does not require fleets or armies."

Sparatus had served with her long enough to read her meaning. "No! It's too soon. Humanity is not ready for the responsibilities that come with joining the Spectres!"

Shepard had expected that response, and countered quickly. "You don't have to send a fleet into the Traverse, and the Ambassador here gets his human Spectre. Everybody's happy."

Valern and Tevos looked at Sparatus expectantly, and he sighed. He was outnumbered, and Shepard had outmaneuvered him. All the Councilors typed into their datapads. Tevos spoke first. "Commander Richard Shepard. Step forward." Shepard glanced at Anderson, nodded, and stepped to the edge of the platform. All around the room, diplomats who had been paying tangential attention to the proceedings gathered and stared. They knew this was big. "It is the decision of this Council that you be granted all the powers and privileges of the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance branch of the Citadel," Tevos announced.

Valern crossed his arms as he continued. "Spectres are not trained, but chosen. Individuals forged in the fire of service and battle, those whose actions elevate them above the rank and file."

Tevos took back over. "Spectres are an ideal, a symbol. The embodiment of courage, determination, and self-reliance. They are the right hand of the Council, instruments of our will."

Sparatus now spoke, his voice showing no sign of hesitation in spite of his initial reluctance. "Spectres bear a great burden. They are protectors of galactic peace, both our first and last line of defense. The safety of the galaxy is theirs to uphold."

Tevos smiled as she finished. "You are the first human Spectre, Commander. This is a great accomplishment for you and your entire species."

Shepard bowed, still stunned his ploy had been successful. "I'm honored, Councilors."

"We're sending you into the Traverse after Saren," Valern briefed him. "He's a fugitive from justice, so you are authorized to use any means necessary to apprehend or eliminate him."

Shepard was already focusing on his mission. "Any idea where to find him?"

"We will forward any relevant files to Ambassador Udina," Sparatus assured him.

"This meeting of the Council is adjourned," Tevos announced.

Liara T'Soni ran.

She was not entirely unfamiliar with it; working in isolated dig sites led to conflicts with pirates and scavengers. But this was totally different. A few good shots or a biotic display from cover was usually enough to frighten scavengers off. But geth…nothing frightened synthetics. And so she ran deeper into the ruins. The geth fired only rarely, and she thanked the Goddess that that vicious-looking krogan had ordered them to take her alive. It was the only reason she had any chance at all.

She made it to the computers she had been trying to work on. They still had power, thanks to the Protheans' incredibly hardy and efficient generators, and tried to access the defense programs she'd catalogued mere days ago. _Hurry, hurry…_after what felt like an eternity, the barriers sprang up, covering the only way into the ruins on every exposed level. Unfortunately, that wasn't all she'd done. A bubble not unlike those barrier curtains snapped into place around her. "Oh dear…I must have hit a wrong button," she mused aloud to herself. The bubble seemed to be letting air through, but a touch proved that it was not going to break anytime soon. She shook her head and closed her eyes. She just had to hope someone would come along before the geth found a way through…or she starved to death.

_Hey, everyone. I hope you've enjoyed the first five chapters. I just wanted to give people a heads-up: My chapters won't be going up daily any more. I've hit the end of the stuff I've already completed and edited, so I'm going to need a bit more time to have future chapters ready. I'm going to shoot for having a new chapter up every three days or so. Thanks for reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Shepard and his unusual group walked out of the C-Sec requisition office, decked out in new armor and wielding a frightening array of powerful new weapons. Shepard had only been able to requisition a single full set of Spectre weapons, and so he got the next best thing for everyone else, well-made weapons, with a focus on giving each person one really top-quality weapon of their preferred type. Ashley had requested an assault rifle, while Kaidan got a powerful pistol. Wrex and Tali both got shotguns, Wrex's larger and more powerful but Tali's faster firing and more accurate. Garrus had gotten the best damn sniper rifle he could find, and he was already fiddling with it to see if he could improve its accuracy or power. Shepard still had a large amount of funds from his new Spectre account available, so he bought a decent set of weapons just in case anyone else joined the crew or one of his current crew wanted to trade.

They then piled into the elevator up to the dock where the Udina and Anderson waited. Udina turned to Shepard. "I've got big news for you, Shepard. Captain Anderson is stepping down as commanding officer of the Normandy. The ship is yours now."

Anderson did his best to keep his pride in his pupil in his voice instead of his anger at being shoved aside. "She's quick and quiet, and you know the crew. Perfect ship for a Spectre. Treat her well, Commander."

Shepard knew Anderson well enough to sense his conflict. "I'll take good care of her, sir," he assured him with a sympathetic look.

Anderson nodded appreciatively. "I know you will."

"What kind of leads do we have?" Shepard inquired.

"Saren's gone. He's a master covert agent; don't even try to find him just yet," Anderson explained. "But we know what he's after: the Conduit. He's got his geth scouring the Traverse looking for clues."

"We've had reports of geth in the system near Feros, though our colony there hasn't given us any hard information yet. And there have been sightings around Noveria," Udina offered.

"Find out what Saren was after on Feros and Noveria. Maybe you can find out where the Conduit is before he does."

"The Reapers are the real threat," Shepard pointed out.

Udina rolled his eyes. "I'm with the Council on this one, Shepard. I'm not sure they even exist."

"But if they do exist, the Conduit's the key to bringing them back," Anderson reasoned. "Stop Saren from getting the Conduit and we stop the Reapers from returning."

Shepard nodded. "I'll stop him."

"We have one more lead. Matriarch Benezia, the other voice on that recording? She has a daughter, an archaeologist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she's involved but it might be a good idea to try and find her. See what she knows. Her name's Liara. Dr. Liara T'Soni. We have reports she was exploring a dig on one of the uncharted worlds in the Artemis Tau cluster."

"Sounds like the most definitive lead. We should head there first," Shepard said, rubbing his chin.

"It's your decision, Commander," Anderson encouraged him. "You're a Spectre now. You don't answer to us."

"But your actions still reflect on humanity as a whole. You make a mess and I get stuck cleaning it up," Udina pointed out.

Shepard sighed, trying to be diplomatic. "I'll try not to make your job any harder, Ambassador."

"Glad to hear it, Commander. Remember, you were a human long before you were a Spectre. I have a meeting to get to. Captain Anderson can answer any questions you might have."

Shepard signaled his squad to board the Normandy, then turned to Anderson. "How're you holding up?" he asked sympathetically.

Anderson sighed. "Honestly? This isn't how I'd pictured my career coming to an end. Pushing papers really isn't my thing. But you're the one who can stop Saren. I believe in you, Shepard. If it means I have to step aside, so be it."

Shepard nodded and patted his shoulder. "Thanks, Anderson. I'll make you proud." With that, he headed to his ship.

Once out of his armor, Shepard headed up to the bridge, where Joker greeted him. "Hey. I heard about what happened to Captain Anderson. Survives a hundred battles, then gets taken down by back-room politics. Just watch your back, Commander. Things go bad on this mission and you're next on their chopping block."

Shepard shook his head. "Anderson should be the one in charge. I feel like I'm stealing the ship from him."

Joker chuckled. "Yeah, the Captain got screwed, but it's not like you could've stopped it. Nobody's blaming you. Everyone on this ship is behind you, Commander. One hundred percent. Intercom's open. If you want to say something to the crew, now's the time."

Shepard took a deep breath and bent over the microphone. "This is Commander Shepard speaking. We have our orders: find Saren before he finds the Conduit. I won't lie to you, crew. This mission isn't going to be easy.'

"For too long, our species has stood apart from the others. Now it's time for us to step up and do our part for the rest of the galaxy. Time to show them what humans are made of!'

"Our enemy knows we're coming. When we go into the Traverse, Saren's followers will be waiting for us. But we'll be ready for them, too.'

"Humanity needs to do this. Not just for our own sake, but for the sake of every species in Citadel space. Saren must be stopped, and I promise you all, we WILL stop him!"

Joker looked up as he closed the intercom. "Well said, Commander. Captain would be proud."

"Anderson gave up everything so that I could have this chance. We can't fail," Shepard declared.

Joker nodded. "Yes, sir!"

"Set a course for the Artemis Tau cluster, Joker. I'll see if I can figure out which system and planet Dr. T'Soni might be on. How long 'til we're there?"

"The cluster? Maybe an hour, depending on traffic at the relay. The exact system will be the real travel time, if she's not in the relay system."

Shepard frowned. "Ok, gimme a sec. I'll check the files the Council sent me." After a few minutes, he managed to find Dr. T'Soni's research proposal. "Looks like she's headed to the Knossos system."

Joker nodded. "That'll be about ten hours after we make the jump, Commander."

Shepard nodded. "I'll go make sure our new crew members are settled in." As he entered the CIC, he saw that Garrus, Wrex, and Tali were all milling about. "Wondering where to go?" he asked with a smile.

"You could say that, Commander," Garrus finally spoke for all the non-humans. "We're not exactly part of the crew, so we don't really have any post…" he trailed off.

"First of all, now that you're here, you're all part of the crew. I don't care that you weren't on the original crew list or that you're not human. As of right now, you're crew. Second, you're all on the ground team, which means you don't necessarily need an on-board job. So I'll leave it up to you. What are you best at?"

Wrex shrugged. "Guns."

Shepard nodded. "Head down to the cargo by. Ashley is officially in charge of that—she is a _Gunnery_ Chief, after all—but we've got plenty of guns to go around."

Garrus was next. "I'm handy with guns as well, Commander. But I'm very good at calibrating larger pieces."

Shepard thought for a moment. "Okay. How about you run maintenance on the Mako. Focus on the weapons. Engineering Specialist Draven is the regular maintenance officer for the Mako, so work with her. Feel free to work on the smaller guns with Wrex and Ashley when you feel like it."

Tali was playing with her hands nervously. "I…um, well, I'm pretty good with engines. I'm a quarian, after all, and an engineer besides. Maybe I could help out in the engine room. If it's not too much trouble…"

Shepard couldn't help but smile at the nervous young woman. "Your people do have a reputation for that. Come with me, everyone. I'll take you down to the cargo bay. The engine room is just past that, Tali." Shepard led them to the cargo elevator and down to the hold. Wrex headed over towards the locker and leaned against the wall, apparently claiming that spot as his territory. He then took Garrus over to the Mako.

The turian clambered up to the turret and opened his omni-tool, running a diagnostic on the main cannon. He groaned. "Oh my. I'm going to have to have a chat with Specialist…?"

"Draven," Shepard supplied.

"Yes, Specialist Draven. This gun is barely at adequate calibration levels. Not to worry, Commander. I'll have it firing like a sniper rifle before we hit the Knossos system."

"Sounds good. Now then, Tali, through here." Shepard led her to the back of the hold, through some doors, and then they were in the engine room.

Tali gasped. The core was enormous, far larger than she'd expected for such a small ship. "Are…are you sure it's okay for me to be here?"

Shepard rubbed the back of his head. "Well, this Tantalus drive core is theoretically secret, but…" He grinned. "I'm granting you access. Spectre authority."

Tali nodded vigorously and headed straight for the nearest console and began working. Shepard walked over to Engineer Adams. "Hope you don't mind an extra set of hands."

Adams looked over at the enthusiastic young quarian. "If she's half as skilled as she is excited, I think things'll work out fine. I'll let you know if there's an issue, but honestly, from what I've heard about quarian engineers, I don't expect anything. Hell, she may take over _my_ job," he joked.

"Just make sure you're willing to let her go long enough for the ground missions," Shepard shot back with a smile. It was good to see the aliens were apparently going to integrate well enough into the ship.

"I'm getting a signal from Therum, Commander. I think we've found our archaeologist," Joker said over his shoulder to Shepard.

The commander nodded. "Open the intercom." Joker pressed a few buttons and nodded. "Ground team, gear up and meet me at the Mako," Shepard ordered.

A short trip to his cabin to gear up and an elevator ride later, Shepard entered the cargo bay to see his squad's expectant faces. "Commander? Who's going on this mission?" Kaidan asked.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "How many people is the Mako spec'd for?"

Garrus chimed in. "Officially, it's listed as being able to hold a squad of seven, but not very comfortably…I don't think they had krogan in mind when they gave that number, though," he added, looking at Wrex.

"Seven's what I thought. So we'll assume Wrex counts for two. Add the rest of us…well, I see seven," Shepard grinned.

Ashley gaped. "You're seriously planning to bring everyone? But…doesn't Alliance special forces protocol recommend three or four-man squads?"

Shepard nodded. "Yeah, but this isn't a standard Alliance op. Hell, nothing's standard about this whole mission. Depending on what we find down there, I may feel the need to split the squad. Best to have as many available as possible."

"Understood, sir," she sighed.

Shepard stepped over to the Mako and opened the bottom hatch, side hatch, and turret hatch. "I'm driving. Garrus, you're on the turret. Let's see what you can do with those calibrations you made. Kaidan, keep an eye on the shields and other systems. Tali, give him a hand. Ash, Wrex, be ready to hop out and take down whatever we find if necessary."


	7. Chapter 7

_Hello folks, this is your author speaking. I'd just like to say thanks for all the views, follows and favorites. But please, please could I get some reviews? I can't get better if you don't tell me what I need to work on! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming._

Chapter 7

The Mako was indeed somewhat cramped as it landed on the surface of Therum. "Commander, I'm picking up some strange readings. Really strange. Like, off the damn charts. It looks like it's coming from an underground complex a few klicks away from the drop zone."

"Roger that, Joker," Shepard answered as the Mako began to move. Pools of lava were visible on either side of the narrow rock passage, but Shepard kept the vehicle on safe ground. They had only gone a short way when there was an ominous roar from overhead and a geth dropship flew over, dropping geth units in their path before moving on.

"Shepard! We got some big ones!" Garrus yelled from the turret.

Tali pulled up the gun camera's images on a screen in the cabin. "Armatures. Not good. They're infantry-support and anti-vehicle platforms. They can fire a concentrated siege pulse of plasma, especially dangerous to shielded targets. We'll need to take them out quickly!"

There was an enormous boom from above and the Mako shook slightly, and Shepard stared as one of the four-legged geth exploded. "Garrus? What the hell did you do to that gun?!"

"Calibrations!" the turian roared triumphantly.

Shepard hit the accelerator to dodge the incoming siege pulse and machine gun fire from the armature, and Garrus managed to lock on despite the bouncing ride and take it out with another shot from the mass accelerator cannon. For a short while longer, they were unopposed, but as they rounded a bend, they saw several missile turrets and a fortified gate in the way. Shepard took advantage of the Mako's small mass-effect core and thrusters, hitting the thrust jets to jump the vehicle over the oncoming missiles, but he knew that wouldn't do it forever.

"That way's too fortified!" Ashley yelled. "See if there's another route!"

"Shepard! On the right!" Garrus yelled down from the turret. Shepard checked his screens and saw a small passageway in the rock walls, and he turned the Mako and got out of the line of fire, the Mako's powerful shields protecting the hull itself from the missiles that struck as they moved.

"Careful, Commander. Radar's showing that the geth didn't leave this place completely clear," Kaidan warned. Sure enough, around the corner was another geth missile turret. This one was alone, though, and Garrus took it out with a shot from the cannon and a few rounds from the machine gun.

They drove past its remains and found themselves looking into an open area, with a number of geth wandering around. "Garrus, let 'em have it. Wrex, Ashley, hop out and take out any geth that get close," Shepard ordered.

Garrus opened up with a cannon shot in the middle of a group of geth, blasting them into cinders. He then sprayed with the anti-personnel machine gun, while Ashley and Wrex took out the few charging geth destroyers that got in range. As soon as the radar showed they were clear, Shepard ordered them back and the Mako moved on. Ashley hopped out to open the gate to the next area, and then they were moving again.

They passed next to an enormous lava lake, and more armatures greeted them. Garrus' used the turret to make short work of them, though, and Shepard kept a hand on the thruster controls to jump over any siege pulses or missiles. They were not prepared for what greeted them as they got to the far side, though. An army of geth rocket troopers…and…

"Keelah! Colossus!" Tali screamed. The monster looked like an armature, but significantly larger.

Shepard had his hands full, trying to dodge all the missiles as well as the Colossus' fire. The Mako was hard to control in tight maneuvers, and Shepard was doing a lot of them. Fortunately, Garrus quickly got used to it, and his skill with the machine gun cleared out the rocket troopers. Once that was done, Shepard accelerated in close, circling the Colossus while Garrus blasted away with the cannon and strafed with the machine gun. The geth couldn't turn fast enough to get a proper bead on them, and after whittling it down, one final blast from the cannon made the Colossus collapse like a broken toy.

The enormous geth had been guarding a road tunnel, and Shepard guided the Mako through it. At the end waited a few more geth rocket troopers, but Garrus gunned one down while Shepard ran the other one over, crushing it to shrapnel. The Mako rolled to a stop at a rock wall with a narrow gap in it. "Shit," Shepard cursed. "Looks like we'll be going the rest of the way on foot. Better hope there's no armatures up there. Everybody out."

Ashley and Wrex took point, with Shepard and Tali behind them. Garrus trailed slightly behind, sniper rifle at the ready, while Kaidan brought up the rear, ready to render aid if anyone got injured. Only a short way in, they encountered heavy resistance from the geth, but with the whole squad working in tandem the geth were quickly outmatched. Preoccupied with the rapidly closing krogan covered by Ashley's fire, they failed to notice Shepard and Garrus' precise shots taking out stragglers caught out of cover, and they certainly weren't prepared when Tali hacked one of their own platforms and they found themselves taking fire from all sides.

The next skirmish was tougher, thanks largely to the presence of geth snipers on the ridge above, but they hadn't reckoned on Garrus. The turian sniper worked methodically and devastatingly, lining up his shot, firing, and dropping into cover even as he scanned for the next sniper. While the rest of the squad took down the geth below them, Garrus kept the snipers from taking potentially deadly potshots. Before long, the team was on the ridge so recently held by geth snipers and heading for the building they could see nearby, which Joker had said was where a distress beacon registered to Dr. T'Soni was reading from. As they reached the top, though, a dropship came overhead and released a number of platforms…including an armature. While the Mako had made short work of them, they lacked the advantage of the powerful cannon and heavy shields on foot. Everyone took cover behind the crates scattered around, and Shepard brought up his omni-tool's radio as he readied his assault rifle. "Take out the hoppers and regular units from cover first! Then, everyone who can run an overload program, target the armature with it on my mark! Everyone else, just blast the damn thing 'til its dead!"

The need to keep the armature from lining up a shot forced extreme care. Soon, though, the only geth left was the armature. "Everyone ready?" Hearing a chorus of positive responses, Shepard nodded. "Okay. 3…2…1…Do it!" He leaned out from cover at the same time as Kaidan, Tali, and Garrus, all four of them running overload programs. The effect was like a massive bolt of lightning springing from nowhere and hammering the geth platform. The armature's shields flickered, the emitters struggling to handle the power surge, and Wrex and Ashley's bullets finally collapsed them. Shepard flung a grenade at the geth and began firing with his rifle. Moments later, the grenade detonated, and the armature crumpled.

Shepard gathered his team at the base of the ramp into the mines where Dr. T'Soni was. "We'll need to split up. I'll take two of you in there with me, and the rest of you stay here and make sure the geth don't have a chance to take this door." He paused looking around and thinking. "Tali, there's bound to be more geth down there, and you're the expert. You're with me. And Kaidan, Dr. T'Soni could be hurt, so I want you there and ready to render aid if needed. Wrex, Ashley, and Garrus, hold this door." Everyone nodded, and Tali and Kaidan moved to his side. "Good luck. We'll be back soon, and hopefully we'll have an asari archaeologist with us."

Shepard, with Tali and Kaidan at his heels, moved cautiously through the tunnels. They had already encountered some geth; the synthetics had not seen them coming and had been easily cut down, but that early encounter urged Shepard to be cautious. Who knew how large this place might be, and how many geth might be waiting? As they moved down the catwalks, more geth appeared below them, and all three launched overloads, blasting the synthetics' circuitry. They used a few old elevators, and found themselves at a barrier curtain, looking at what appeared to be an asari floating in a bubble. "Um, hello? Could somebody help me, please?" she asked as they approached. All three of them stared in shock. "Can you hear me out there? I'm trapped! I need help!"

Shepard shook his head quickly to clear the surprise. "Are you okay? What happened to you?"

The asari sighed. "I…made a mistake. Listen. This thing I'm in is a Prothean security device. I cannot move, so I need you to get me out of it. All right?"

"Careful, Commander. Her mother…what if someone put her there to keep her from helping Saren?" Kaidan cautioned.

Shepard nodded and decided to go direct. "Your mother is working with Saren. Whose side are you on?"

Dr. T'Soni seemed genuinely confused. "What? I am not on anybody's side!" Shepard saw anger and disappointment flare on her face. "I may be Benezia's daughter, but I'm nothing like her! I have not spoken to her in years. Please. Just let me out of here."

"How exactly did you end up in there, anyway?" Shepard asked, looking for some way through the barrier curtain.

"I was exploring the ruins when the geth showed up, so I hid in here. Can you believe it? Geth! Beyond the Veil!"

"Unfortunately, I can," Shepard chuckled dryly.

"I activated the tower's defenses. I knew the barrier curtains would keep them out. When I turned it on, I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. I was trapped in here. You must get me out, please!"

"We'll find some way to help you," Shepard assured her.

"There is a control in here that should deactivate this thing. You'll have to find some way past the barrier curtain. That's the tricky part. The defenses cannot be shut off from the outside. I don't know how you'll get in here."

"We'll think of something," Shepard assured her. "Are there any more hostiles in here?"

"Yes. Be careful. There is a krogan with the geth. They have been trying different ways to get past the barrier."

As the squad made their way to the rocky floor, a few more geth came towards them, but they had no more success than the last few groups. Shepard paused next to the control console for some massive piece of machinery. He looked at the label. "Mining laser…" A wide grin spread across his face.

"Oh no…you wouldn't…" Kaidan groaned.

"Keelah…you're going to…oh, Keelah!" Tali exclaimed.

Shepard cracked his knuckles. "Let's see how this works…"

After a few moments, Shepard overrode the safety protocols. The whole cavern rumbled as the laser roared to life, boring a clean hole through both the rock and the tower. "Now _that_ was fun," Shepard laughed.

The fortification team checked their weapons as they finished off a wave of geth. "Easier than I expected," Wrex chuckled.

"The geth seem to favor quantity over quality," Garrus agreed.

"Just like turians," Wrex shot back, laughing but watching to see Garrus' reaction. The former C-Sec agent scowled but did not rise to the bait.

"I hope the commander hurries in there," Ashley said. "I'm getting tired of shooting at geth."

Before anyone could reply, the ground shook beneath their feet. They looked down in shock.

"What the hell's going on down there?" Garrus asked. Neither companion had an answer.


	8. Chapter 8

_Come on, guys! I need reviews! I got a fever, and the only cure is reviews!_

Chapter 8

The squad moved through the still-smoking hole and found themselves on a central ring with a console in front of them. Shepard looked at it for a while before pressing the most inviting button. There was a groan of metal and then the whole ring began to move up, stopping at the level where Dr. T'Soni floated helplessly.

As they came up behind her, she looked stunned. "How…how did you get in here? I didn't think there was any way past the barriers!"

Shepard grinned. "Superior firepower. We activated your mining laser and let ourselves in. Hope you don't mind." He turned serious. "But we have to get you out of here before more geth or that krogan arrive."

"Yes, you're right. I've seen enough of them to last a lifetime. That button should shut down my containment field."

Shepard still wasn't absolutely certain Dr. T'Soni was trustworthy, so he shot Kaidan a meaningful look as he headed for the console. Kaidan nodded and moved behind the asari, drawing his pistol but not pointing it at her. _Just in case she tries anything_…

Shepard pressed a few buttons and the bubble vanished. With its support gone, Dr. T'Soni fell to the floor. "Oof!" she exclaimed. She stood and dusted herself off.

"Any idea how we get out of this place?" Kaidan asked after surreptitiously holstering his pistol in the absence of any biotic attack from the asari.

"There is an elevator back in the center of the tower. At least I think it's an elevator."

"It is. That's how we got here," Shepard informed her.

"Good. It should take us out of here. Come on!"

As they got onto the ring and Shepard activated it, Dr. T'Soni shook her head. "I still cannot believe all of this. Why would the geth come after me? Do you think Benezia's involved?"

Kaidan shrugged. "Saren's looking for the Conduit. You're a Prothean expert. He probably wanted you to help him find it."

Dr. T'Soni looked stunned. "The Conduit? But I don't know—" A loud rumble cut her off.

"The hell was that?" Shepard said, looking around in concern.

"These ruins are not stable. That mining laser must have triggered a seismic event," the asari explained.

Shepard felt his squad's glares. "Look, it's not like there was a warning label!" he protested.

"We have to hurry," Dr. T'Soni said as she activated the elevator. "The whole place is caving in!"

Shepard activated his radio. "Joker! Get the Normandy airborne and lock in on my signal! Now!"

"Aye aye, Commander. Secure and away. ETA five minutes."

"That's a pretty small window," Tali said, fear in her voice. "I hope your pilot is here when he says he'll be here."

The elevator ride took at least a minute, and came to a stop on the top level. They could see the scaffolding and pathway to the way they'd come in, but there was an obstacle. A heavily-armored krogan and several geth stood between them and the platform. "Surrender!" the krogan demanded. "Or don't. That'd be more fun."

"In case you didn't notice, this whole place is falling apart!" Shepard pointed out, hoping he could appeal to his opponent's survival instinct.

The krogan was unimpressed. "Exhilarating, isn't it? Thanks for getting rid of those energy fields for us. Hand the doctor over."

"Whatever it is you want, you're not getting it from me!" the asari answered defiantly.

"She'll stay with us, thanks," Shepard answered mockingly.

"Not an option. Saren wants her. And he always gets what he wants." The krogan turned to the geth. "Kill them. Spare the asari if you can. If not, doesn't matter." The krogan fired his shotgun as he ran aside, while Shepard drew his assault rifle and gunned down the nearest geth. Tali and Kaidan took down two more with overloads followed by shotgun and pistol fire.

Shepard took down another geth with an overload when he heard a cry from his left. He turned to see Kaidan flying through the air from the krogan's biotics as the beast held Tali over three feet off the ground by her neck. Shepard's training and determination won out over his momentary panic, and he gritted his teeth. _Not today!_ He dropped his assault rifle, not trusting it for the precision he would need, and took aim with his pistol and shot the krogan in the arm with which he held Tali. The bullet ripped through the krogan's elbow, and the pain of the now-ruined joint caused the krogan to drop the young quarian. The krogan glared at Shepard, his elbow already beginning to heal from his natural krogan regenerative powers, as the commander fired up his biotics and sent a ball of force into the krogan, lifting the massive reptilian alien into the air and flinging him back near the edge of the platform. Shepard holstered his pistol and drew his shotgun, pumping off three quick shots as he ran forward. He ejected the spent heat sink as he reached the krogan. The battlemaster looked up, bleeding orange blood from a dozen hideous wounds, hate in his eyes, as Shepard stood over him, placed the shotgun at his head, and fired.

The krogan went limp, but just to be sure Shepard put two more shots into his head before ejecting another thermal clip and stowing his shotgun. Kaidan was already up, holding his ribs, while Tali was still lying on the ground. Shepard ran over, as did Kaidan, the latter preparing a dose of medi-gel.

It wasn't necessary, however. Tali was physically all right; likely nothing more than some bruising from the krogan's grip. However, she was paralyzed by shock. _Keelah…he almost killed me!_ Tali was no stranger to mortal peril; she had already watched a friend die, and faced down Fist's assassins. She had been close to dying when she was shot with sickening polonium rounds on the Citadel. But being trapped in the steel grip of that battlemaster, with her would-be executioner staring right at her, was somehow too much. To face death was one thing. To see it grinning back at her was quite another.

"Tali?!" Shepard yelled in her face. Her wide, luminescent eyes blinking slowly was his only response. "Shit. This place'll explode before she'll be back to normal. Kaidan, help Dr. T'Soni up and head for the exit! I'll be right behind you with Tali!" He scooped her up and slung her over his shoulder, carrying her in a fireman's lift. In spite of her slender build, she was still quite a burden as dead weight.

Rocks fell from the ceiling, creating an ever-shifting obstacle course. Shepard paused a moment to make sure they weren't being followed, and then he entered the tube that led to the surface. As the door opened, the sudden pressure shift pulled a cloud of dust up and past them, assaulting them with particulates. They burst out of the mine and onto the surface to them welcome sight of the hovering Normandy, cargo bay open, the three squad members Shepard had left to guard the entrance already standing aboard. Kaidan and Dr. T'Soni ran aboard, closely followed by Shepard, Tali still slung over his shoulder. They all headed for the elevator as Joker sealed the hold and then shot out of the planet's atmosphere.

Tali was coherent enough to stand on her own legs now, but she was still unsteady, leaning on Shepard for support. As soon as the elevator reached the next deck, Shepard took her straight to med bay. "I'm okay, really," she protested dazedly.

"No, you're not. Nothing serious, but you need some rest. I'll fill you in on the post-mission briefing afterwards, ok?" He turned to Dr. Chakwas. "Not sure what you can do for shock, Doctor, but do what you can, okay? I need Tali ready for the next mission." Dr. Chakwas nodded as the commander headed for the comm room, accompanied by Dr. T'Soni.

After about a half an hour to write his mission report for the Council, with Dr. T'Soni providing details about what had happened at the site prior to his arrival, Shepard paged the ground team to meet. Everyone else headed for some of the available seats while Shepard stood at the back of the room. With everyone gathered, Joker's couldn't help but inject some humor over the intercom. "Too close, Commander. Ten more seconds and we would've been swimming in molten sulfur. The Normandy's not equipped to land in exploding volcanoes. They tend to fry our sensors and melt our hull. Just for, y'know, future reference."

Dr. T'Soni was stunned. "We almost died out there and your pilot is making jokes?"

Shepard shrugged. "Joker pulled our asses out of there, Doctor. I think he's earned the right to a few bad jokes."

"Can't get no respect," Joker grumbled over the intercom.

"I…see. It must be a human thing. I don't have a lot of experience dealing with your species, Commander. But I am grateful to you. You saved my life back there, and not just from the volcano. Those geth would have killed me, or dragged me off to Saren."

"What did Saren want with you?" Kaidan asked. "Do you know something about the Conduit?"

The asari shook her head. "Only that it was connected to the Prothean extinction. That is my real area of expertise. I have spent the past fifty years trying to figure out what happened to them."

Shepard blinked. He knew asari were long-lived, but Dr. T'Soni looked incredibly young. Were she human, her youthful features would have made Shepard hesitate to put her above twenty. Even accounting for her asari nature, she looked far too young to have a half-century's experience as an archaeologist. "At the risk of sounding impolite, how old are you, exactly, Dr. T'Soni?"

"Please, call me Liara. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I'm only a hundred and six," Liara said sheepishly.

Ashley gaped. "Damn! I hope I look that good when I'm that your age."

"A century may seem like a long time to a short-lived species like yours, but among the asari I am barely considered more than a child," Liara explained. That certainly accounted for her barely-adult features when she was already past her first century. "That is why my research has not received the attention it deserves. Because of my youth, other asari scholars tend to dismiss my theories on what happened to the Protheans."

Images from the beacon flashed through Shepard's head. "I've got my own theory about why the Protheans disappeared."

Liara looked at him like human archaeologists looked at people who believed the pyramids were 50,000-year-old Prothean constructions. "With all due respect, Commander, I have heard every theory out there. The problem is finding evidence to support them. The Protheans left remarkably little behind." She shook her head. "It is almost as if someone did not want the mystery solved. It is like someone came along after the Protheans were gone and cleansed the galaxy of clues. But here is the incredible part: according to my findings, the Protheans were not the first galactic civilization to mysteriously vanish. This cycle began long before them."

Shepard decided to see what she had before revealing his vision. "Where'd you come up with this theory? I thought there wasn't any evidence."

"I have been working on this for fifty years. I have tracked down every scrap and shred of evidence. Eventually, subtle patterns started to emerge, patterns that hint at the truth. It is…difficult to explain to someone else. I cannot point to one specific thing to prove my case; it is more a _feeling_ derived from a half-century of dedicated research. But I know I'm right, and eventually I will be able to prove it. There were other civilizations before the Protheans. This cycle has repeated itself many times over."

"If the Protheans weren't the first, who was?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know," Liara admitted. "There is barely any evidence on the Protheans, even less on those who came before them. I cannot prove my theory, but…I just know I am right! The galaxy is built on a cycle of extinction. Each time a great civilization rises up, it is suddenly and violently cast down. Only ruins survive. The Protheans rose up from a single world until their Empire spanned the galaxy, yet even they climbed to the top on the remains of those who came before. Their greatest achievements—the mass relays and the Citadel—are based on the technology of those who came before them. And then, like all the other forgotten civilizations throughout galactic history, the Protheans disappeared. I have dedicated my life to figuring out why."

Shepard decided now was the time to drop his bomb. "They were wiped out by a race of sentient machines: the Reapers."

Liara was shocked. "The…the Reapers? But I have never heard of…how do you know this? What evidence do you have?" she demanded.

"There was a damaged Prothean beacon on Eden Prime," Shepard explained. "It burned a vision into my brain. I'm still trying to sort out what it all means. But the Reapers are unmistakably in there."

"Vision?" Liara mused. "Yes…that makes sense. The beacons were designed to transmit information directly into the mind of the user. Finding one that still works is extremely rare. No wonder the geth attacked Eden Prime. The chance to acquire a working beacon, even a badly damaged one, is worth almost any risk. But the beacons were only programmed to interact with Prothean physiology. Whatever information you received would have been confused, unclear. I am amazed you were able to make sense of it at all. A lesser mind would have been utterly destroyed by the process. You must be remarkably strong-willed, Commander," Liara exclaimed, unable to keep her admiration out of her voice.

Ashley interrupted. "Okay, this isn't helping us find Saren. Or the Conduit."

Liara looked surprised. "Of course, you're right. My scientific curiosity got the better of me. Unfortunately, I do not have any information that might help you find the Conduit. Or Saren."

"I don't know why Saren wanted you out of the picture. But he did, and I think you'll be a lot safer if we bring you along," Shepard decided.

"Thank you, Commander. Saren might come after me again. I cannot think of anywhere safer than here on your ship. And my knowledge of the Protheans may prove useful later on," she said, standing.

"And her biotics will come in handy when the fighting starts," Wrex noted, ever practical.

Shepard nodded. "Good to have you on the team, Doct—Liara."

Liara smiled. "Thank you, Commander. I am very gratef—whoa…" She stumbled slightly. "I am afraid I'm feeling a but light-headed."

"When was the last time you ate? Or slept? Dr. Chakwas should take a look at you," Kaidan said.

Liara tried to play it off, not wanting to appear weak in front of a group of soldiers. "It is probably just mental exhaustion, coupled with the shock of discovering the Protheans' true fate. I need some time to process all of this." Seeing the skeptical look Shepard was giving her, she relented. "Still, it could not hurt to be examined by a medical professional. It will give me the chance to think things over. Are we finished here, Commander?"

Shepard nodded. "We can talk again after you've seen Dr. Chakwas. I need to go down there and give Tali a summary of all this anyways. The rest of you, dismissed."

As the crew filed out of the room, Joker spoke over the intercom. "Mission reports are filed, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?"

"Patch them through, Joker," Shepard ordered.

Three holos flared to life. "We've received your report, Commander," Councilor Tevos began. "I understand Dr. T'Soni is on the Normandy."

"I assume you're taking the necessary security precautions?" Councilor Sparatus asked.

"Liara's on our side. The geth were trying to kill her," Shepard explained.

The asari councilor looked troubled. "Benezia would never allow Saren to kill her daughter."

"Maybe she doesn't know," Councilor Valern suggested.

"Or maybe we don't know her," the turian countered. "We never expected she could become a traitor."

"At least the mission was a success," the salarian acknowledged.

"Apart from the utter destruction of a major Prothean ruin. Was that really necessary, Shepard?" Sparatus asked angrily.

"First of all, it was an unintended side effect of a necessary action to secure Dr. T'Soni," Shepard answered calmly. "Second, the geth were crawling all over that ruin. We were lucky to get out alive. Don't think we'd be getting much research data from it."

Valern nodded. "Of course, Commander. The mission must always take priority."

"Good luck, Commander. We're all counting on you," Tevos said, and then the Council vanished.

Shepard sighed. _Could've gone better…could've gone worse_. He left the comm room and headed down the stairs to the lower deck, then went to the med bay. Liara was sitting on the end of a bed while Dr. Chakwas ran scans, while Tali was sitting up on her bed. "Well, good to see you're looking more coherent," Shepard said by way of greeting.

The second she heard his voice, Tali tensed up. "Oh! Um, Commander. I, um…I'm sorry about what happened down there…" she trailed off, almost like she expected him to chew her out or tell her to get off the ship.

"Hey, cheer up. You're okay. And I got to play hero, carrying you out of there," Shepard joked, hoping to put her at ease. He saw that she seemed to relax slightly, but her eyes still dropped down a moment after she looked at him. "Tali…listen, I'm sorry."

Tali's eyes darted up in confusion. "What…why are _you_ sorry? I'm the one who let that krogan grab me…"

Shepard shook his head. "No, my job was to keep him away from you and Kaidan. I just got distracted by the geth. I won't let that happen again." Tali still didn't seem convinced. "I mean it, this one's on me. You did great down there." He leaned in a bit closer and met her eyes to help her feel more comfortable. "Seriously, are you all right?"

Tali shrugged slowly. "I…I think so. I've been in dangerous situations before. I won't let this happen again."

"Good to hear. Hopefully, you won't have to deal with any more krogan choke-holds. We need you down there." Then he summarized the debriefing.

"Looks like maybe you can get some support for the Reaper theory to show the Council," Tali joked.

"Damned if it wouldn't be useful with the way they treated it last time," Shepard agreed.

Dr. Chakwas walked over. "It looks like Dr. T'Soni here is suffering from a lack of nutrients, dehydration, and sleep deprivation. I'm recommending that she rest here and get some sleep. I'm going to put her on a nutrient IV while she's asleep to get her back up to full. One good night's rest and she should be fine, Commander."

Liara started to protest, but Shepard cut her off. "Don't worry, Liara. We're not doing anything major for a while. Get some rest." The asari nodded before scooting back on the bed and lying down. Shepard turned to Tali. "Same for you. Best way to recover from shock like yours is to rest. In fact, I think I'll send along a recommendation that everyone get some rest." Shepard brought up his omni-tool and sent a message out to the squad. "Later," he said, heading out of the med bay.


	9. Chapter 9

_This chapter is the first one where I'm really flying blind; it's all my own ideas. Any reviews would be greatly appreciated!_

Chapter 9

_The beacon's images ripped through his mind, Reaper ships annihilating the Protheans. Trillions screaming for mercy from an enemy that had none._

_Suddenly, in one of those shifts that seemed so ordinary in dreams, he was on Mindoir, hiding in the closet as the batarians burned his father alive, dragged his mother away in an electrified net that burned her as they pulled. The bastards were laughing. He hid, a weak and frightened child, his hand clasped on a fool's hope: a heavy knife. His dreams of being a hero had shattered the moment he realized what was happening: he grabbed the biggest knife in the kitchen of the restaurant he worked at and ran for home, thinking only of saving himself. But he had done so. A batarian had come snooping through the house, looking for some last loot to steal, and found him in the closet. Shepard opened his mouth to yell but no sound came out as he chopped wildly in a desperate bid for life. And his swing had been faster than the batarian's shotgun draw. _

_The first strike cut into its head, stunning it even as the edge bit into its flesh. Hardly fatal, the blow would have left only an ugly scar, but it surprised the pirate and interrupted his attempt to aim and fire his shotgun. The second chop, driven by his survival instinct, had chopped at the arm the batarian used to hold the shotgun's handle, and the weapon clattered to the floor, the rough edge tearing a ragged gash through an artery, sending dark red blood fountaining. Shepard didn't know how many strokes he'd made after that; the batarians had left without their buddy, anxious to beat feet before the Alliance arrived. The marines had found him still mechanically chopping at the horrifically mangled corpse, his eyes empty, unseeing._

_In the blink of an eye he found himself on Elysium. The once-idyllic colony was burning. Half his platoon was dead at his feet already, victims of his blunder, trying to overcompensate for his youthful cowardice. Some leader. He ordered the rest to get the civilians out, his lesson apparently still not learned. He would atone for this, and for Mindoir, even if it took his death to do so. His sergeant, his best friend, Fred Jameson, had stuck with him. They held the batarians back for what seemed like days. Fred smiled at Shepard triumphantly as another wave fell at their makeshift fortifications. Shepard smiled back, kept smiling as the vicious dart of a Kishok harpoon sniper rifle ripped Fred's face apart. One more dead because of Shepard's past-addled excuse for 'leadership.'_

_On Eden Prime, trying to ignore the smell of burning corpses. Richard L. Jenkins, young and eager, ran forward on Shepard's orders, a hail of geth fire tearing holes in him, his enthusiastic expression unchanging as the slugs tore him apart. Another over-aggressive order, another man dead from his lack of caution. Failure._

_Suddenly he was on Therum, but nothing was the same as it had been earlier that day. Kaidan flew over the edge of the platform from the krogan's biotics, screaming until a sickening, crunching thud ended it. The Krogan laughed as he impossibly squeezed Tali's head from her body, the pieces spraying ghastly, vividly red blood. Shepard couldn't move as the Krogan stepped over, laid his shotgun barrel against Shepard's forehead. "What a disappointment. But what do you expect…from a human?" The voice, and his laughing face, was suddenly Saren's. He pulled the trigger._

Shepard bolted upright, drenched in cold sweat. He was shivering, unable to breathe deeply. He'd had intermittent night terrors ever since Mindoir, each traumatic experience in his life joining the roll, to be relived whenever his subconscious was in a particularly sour mood. He knew it was pointless to try to sleep now; the dreams would probably not return, but his body didn't seem to know or care, trying to avoid the possibility of such trauma again. He sighed. Sometimes he wondered how he carried on, never getting quite enough sleep. He went to see an old friend, the only one that seemed to help at times like this.

He made his way out of his cabin and headed to his locker. Alongside the armor and guns he found his personal stash of sake, a drink he'd become enamored with courtesy of a Japanese member of his squad on Elysium, one of the lucky ones who had survived his foolish advance. He headed into the mess hall and poured some into a glass, placing it in a microwave. After a short time, he removed and turned. Tali was standing there behind him.

"You don't seem to do a very good job of following your own orders, Commander," she said.

Shepard shrugged. "Neither do you, apparently," he said with a chuckle. "Want some?" he offered, holding up the empty cup and the bottle.

"Sorry, but I couldn't even if I wanted to. I'm sure that's not sterilized, and even if it were, humans are levos."

Shepard blinked as he sat down. "Huh?"

Tali was surprised. Shepard hadn't known much about her people's customs, like the Pilgrimage, but it hadn't occurred to her that he wouldn't know about the dextro issue. "Okay, you know that turians can't eat human food and vice-versa, right?" she asked as she sat across from him.

Shepard nodded. "Something about the proteins. Quarians have that too?"

"Yes. Our proteins are dextro-proteins, yours are levo-proteins. Eating each other's food could cause an allergic reaction. Sometimes it can even be fatal. Especially for us," she added sadly.

"Because of your immune systems, right? I at least know that. That's why you have the suits, right?"

Tali nodded glumly. "Exactly. But anyways, why are you up?"

Shepard froze, his cup halfway to his mouth. He didn't much like the idea of telling anyone about his nightmares. It had taken a long time before he'd been willing to even tell Anderson about them, and for some reason, the idea of telling Tali seemed especially bad…yet also good. It was an odd feeling. "Ladies first," he said, trying to buy some time.

Tali's eyes shifted in a manner that looked suspiciously like raising an eyebrow. "Okay…I'm up because…well…" she trailed off. "Have you noticed anything odd about the Normandy?"

Shepard was concerned. "No, but you're the engineer here. Is something wrong with the ship?"

She shook her head. "Not like you're thinking. It's just…well, listen!"

Shepard did, but heard nothing. Did quarians have a wider range of frequencies they could hear or something? "I don't hear anything…"

"That's what I mean! It's so quiet!" Tali exclaimed.

"Hmm. Now that you mention it, I suppose the Hong Kong did have a bit more engine noise. Wait. The quiet bothers you?" Shepard asked.

Tali nodded. "On the Flotilla, there's _always_ noise. Some of our ships date back to when we originally left our homeworld three hundred years ago. Silence means the engine is dead, or worse, that the air filter isn't working."

Shepard nodded understandingly. "Ah. I remember having trouble sleeping when I first left Mindoir. Wasn't sure what it was until an older colony brat mentioned the lack of farm noise. Didn't know what to do without the sound of agri-machines at all hours. You get used to the sounds around you."

"Yes. And how do you deal with so few people on board? The Flotilla is always crowded. There is almost no personal space. But here there's so much room, it's like half the crew is missing!"

Shepard chuckled. "By human standards, the Normandy is incredibly cramped living. We expect a lot more space than you. So I can't help with that. But have you considered getting music or even recording the noise from the Normandy's engine room and playing it through your omni-tool while you try to go to sleep? It might help."

Tali blinked. "I…hadn't considered that. Thanks for the suggestion."

"No problem, Tali. Helping out is why I'm here," he smiled.

She giggled, but stifled it quickly. _Where did _that_ noise come from?_ She tried to distract from her embarrassment by going back to her initial question. "So that was my explanation. What's yours?"

Shepard sighed. "So much for my hope you'd forgotten about that," he joked dryly. "You sure you want to know?"

"Commander, asking that isn't doing much to make me not want to hear. If anything, that just increases my curiosity."

Shepard looked down. "Okay then." He drained his cup. "I…sometimes have nightmares. Night terrors, really."

Tali cocked her head slightly. "Okay…I didn't expect that. But you don't seem the type to be kept from sleep by nightmares, Commander."

Shepard shook his head. He had always resisted efforts by others to learn more about him and get close. He was good at talking to other people, but when they talked to him…well. But for some reason Shepard felt a little bit safer talking with Tali than with most people. He continued in spite of the rational part of his brain screaming for him to stop. "I don't suppose you looked into my background when you came aboard?"

Tali looked down sheepishly. "I…may have done that. Why?"

"So you know the basics. Grew up on a colony called Mindoir. In 2172, when I was sixteen, batarian slavers hit Mindoir. Just about everyone I knew was gone after that." He paused for a deep breath. "My dad was killed. Flamethrower. My mom was dragged away by the slavers. It may surprise you, knowing me now, but I ran and hid. I wasn't a soldier then. It was all I really could do. A batarian found me in the closet I was hiding in. But I had a knife I'd grabbed from a restaurant. I killed him. The marines said they had to pull me off his remains, that I was still cutting him. I don't really remember much past the first few hits, though. I had to do a lot of therapy after that, but I came out more or less okay. That's when the Alliance saw my aptitude scores and discovered my biotics. They wanted me for officer training, told me it was my best chance to get back at the batarians. That was all the urging I needed. Soon as I turned eighteen and my therapists agreed to release me, I went through basic and officer camp, and got assigned to Elysium early in 2176." He paused, looking to see Tali's reaction.

She was looking at him sympathetically. "My mother died five years ago. I remember how devastating it was. My people are very family-oriented. To lose your whole family, and all your friends too…I can't believe it didn't drive you completely insane."

Shepard nodded. He smiled ironically. "Not sure it didn't. That I'm up now is proof of that. I'm sure the file gave you an earful about what comes next, huh?"

She nodded. "The Skyllian Blitz. Even on the Migrant Fleet we heard about that. It wasn't until I checked your records that I realized _you_ were the hero of that whole incident." She looked down. "It's the kind of thing you see in vids, getting rescued by someone like the Hero of the Blitz."

Shepard chuckled darkly. "Well, unfortunately this is no vid. The news, vids, and all that make the Blitz sound a lot better than it was. Same with the public accounts, everything you probably accessed. The truth is, I was a rookie officer. We'd had to take out a couple of small pirate bands before, but I'd never seen anything like this. I was a 20-year-old, revenge-driven kid left to save an entire colony. And I screwed up."

"But you did it," Tali pointed out.

"Mostly," Shepard conceded, "but the stories always focus on the later part, the 'heroic stand.' The part that makes for a good story. But look past that and consider: why was I in that position at all?"

Tali seemed taken aback. "Why? What do you mean? You were attacked…right?"

Shepard sighed. "Yes, we were attacked. But only a small group attacked my squad. We figured it was a slave grab, and the guys that hit us were a distraction to tie us up while the slavers worked. And we beat them handily, put them into full retreat. And then I lost over half of my platoon on one boneheaded order. I tried to land a knockout blow, chased the survivors as they ran. I figured they were the muscle, and if we took them out, we could take their ships and capture the slavers. I was so caught up in taking them out that I never did the mental math and realized something wasn't right. That there should have been an order of magnitude more pirates, maybe even more than that, based on the number of ships on the grid. I led my men right into a trap. That first attack was no distraction. It was a feint, meant to draw us into following the retreat, and I jumped headlong into it. They weren't there for slaves, they were there for blood. Half of my guys were dead before we managed to retreat. I decided to cover the retreat, and the only sergeant left, my best friend, stayed with me. We set up a barricade and told the rest of the men to get the civilians out while we held off the batarians."

Tali stared at him admiringly. "You chose to save them over yourself. Even if you made a mistake, everyone agrees what you did was heroic."

"I won't deny that one of my motivations, particularly during that delaying action, was to keep the people of Elysium from experiencing what I did on Mindoir. But I also wasn't fast enough. I saw a lot of dead civilians. Saw some being executed by batarians, too far away for me to help. I saved a lot of people, but I failed to save a lot, too. And my men…there were a lot of men shipped home in boxes because they followed my bad orders. There's no getting around that. And finally, I wanted to get my revenge on the batarians for both my men and for my family. I wanted to kill as many of them as I could." Shepard leaned back and exhaled heavily.

"I didn't expect anyone to stay with me. I planned on erasing my stupid orders by going down fighting. Hell, I ordered Fred to leave. But he wouldn't. And I don't think I'd be here without him. They'd have overwhelmed me if I was alone. But during the heaviest waves, at the start, before they got cautious—and started running out of men—there were two of us. Made all the difference. But partway through our stand, Fred got hit by a sniper. Using a Kishok." Tali shuddered. She'd heard stories of what was often called the cruelest weapon in the galaxy, a rifle that fired massive metal darts rather than the tiny projectiles used by most mass-accelerator weapons. "I held out alone from there. I was almost out of clips and even my ammo block was running out when the cavalry came swooping in and saved my ass. They said I was a hero, gave me a medal. I don't know how they said that after the orders I gave, but there it is. An N7 recommendation came after that; I was the youngest soldier to ever receive one, and all after the biggest blunder of my life. They told me that more experienced men than I had made that same sort of mistake, but that what I did afterwards made me special. Even with more therapy running at the same time, I did the training, passed everything in N1 through N6, and got assigned to the SSV Tokyo under Anderson for my final N7 field tests. When I passed those and became a full N7, I got reassigned to the SSV Hong Kong. Ran some missions in the Traverse, did a good enough job that Captain Anderson requested me for the Normandy when he took command. Then came Eden Prime. I got another of my squad, Jenkins, killed by geth drones with nearly the same damn mistake. I advanced us too fast, told him to take point, thought the coast was clear. It wasn't, and Jenkins paid for my mistake." He paused, not sure if it was a good idea to mention the final part of his nightmare.

Tali almost took his hand, but caught herself before doing anything that forward. Instead, she just did her best to make sure her sympathy was obvious even through her mask. "Jenkins wasn't your fault. The geth are perfect ambushers. And getting anyone out on Elysium was more than anyone could have expected of someone so young. You made a mistake, but you more than made up for it." She chuckled lightly "And you've saved me twice now, so I think you're pretty good at it."

Shepard couldn't help but laugh. "Maybe I'm finally getting the hang of it?" He leaned forward. "Sorry I lost track of that krogan. I should've been focusing on him while you guys took out the geth. I nearly paid big time for that one. I'm glad you ended up okay."

Tali was thankful that her mask hid the fact that she was blushing. "I am, too. That was pretty impressive, actually, your precision shooting." Humor crept into her voice. "I have to admit, even with him choking me, I was a little afraid you'd hit me by accident."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Come over here," he said with a cocky, lopsided grin. Tali was confused as he led her over to his locker. He opened it up and pulled out his dress blues and pointed to a medal on the breast. "See that? That's my Pistol Expert medal. Only a handful of Marines get this medal. I've earned one every year for seven years. I won't hit you unless I'm supposed to."

Tali laughed. "I get it, you're good, Commander."

Shepard laughed too. "Hey, gotta show off sometimes. And Tali? You really don't have to call me Commander. Feel free to call me Shepard." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Seems like everyone else around here does."

Tali's eyes and body language made Shepard pretty sure she was smiling. "Okay… Shepard."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Shepard, we need to talk," Garrus said as the Commander angrily slammed his locker shut.

"About what?" he snapped.

"You know what about," the turian answered evenly.

Shepard took a deep breath. "Sorry, Garrus. I'm just a bit on edge after everything on that asteroid."

Garrus nodded; he understood. They had been preparing to go to Feros when an emergency call had come in from Alliance Command: someone had taken over the massive asteroid X57 in the Asgard system, and was aiming it straight at Terra Nova, one of humanity's most important colonies. The Normandy had responded, and with Shepard, Garrus, Ashley, and Kaidan as the ground team, discovered that batarian terrorists had been responsible.

With the aid of an engineer named Kate Bowman, they had shut down the three fusion torches propelling X57 towards Terra Nova, but things had gone sideways after that. The batarian lieutenant had tried to cut a deal, claiming he didn't want to go along with the plan and had only signed on for a slave grab. The moment the words 'slave grab' left his mouth, Shepard had stepped in and slashed his throat with his combat knife, snarling about batarian slavers and their atrocities as he opened fire on the rest of the batarian squad. They had gone to the main facility to confront the batarian leader, a psychopath named Balak. Unfortunately, Balak had had enough time to prepare for them, and had offered a sadistic choice: Shepard could attempt to kill Balak, but Balak would detonate bombs in a room with the surviving engineers from the asteroid, including Bowman, as soon as Shepard attacked. If Shepard let Balak walk, he could deactivate the bombs and save the civilians.

One look at the commander's face told Garrus that Shepard wanted nothing more than to rip Balak apart with his bare hands, but Shepard had allowed the terrorist to go in favor of saving the civilians. Other than during short talks with Bowman and the lead engineer, he'd been in a foul mood since, snapping pickup orders to the Normandy, and otherwise mostly silent.

"I know I acted all confident with the supervisor, Garrus, but I'm really not sure I did the right thing."

Garrus was quiet. "I was actually going to ask you something related to that, Shepard. I…this whole thing reminded me of a particular case back in C-Sec. A salarian geneticist named Dr. Saleon. He was a sick bastard, growing organs for black market sale in his employees' own bodies."

"I hope he got what he deserved," Shepard said, his anger turned to disgust at the doctor's actions.

"That's the worst part. We never caught him," Garrus sighed.

"What? Why not?" Shepard exclaimed.

"He ran. Blew his lab, grabbed some employees, and headed for the nearest space dock. By the time I found out, his ship was already leaving. He threatened to kill the hostages if we tried to stop him."

Shepard saw where this was going. "So what happened?"

"I ordered Citadel Defense to shoot him down, but C-Sec HQ countermanded my order. They were worried about the hostages, and potential civilian casualties so close to the Citadel. I told them those hostages were dead anyways; he would just use them to make more organs. But they wouldn't listen." He looked expectantly at Shepard.

"Best case would be to pursue and disable the vessel," Shepard answered.

"They sent the military after him, but he still got away. I almost quit over that incident. All they had to do was disable that ship. Maybe the hostages die, maybe they don't, but either way you take out the bastard responsible."

Shepard smiled ruefully. "And you're wondering, after what I did with Balak, what I would do in your place, huh? Well, I wish there was an easy answer, Garrus. I can say that you had a lot more justification to go after Saleon than I had to go after Balak, though. There was a chance to get both the bastard and the innocent lives, but this time it was a pretty clear-cut choice. And in general, tough as it is to swallow, I think your superiors were more or less right, at least as far as shooting down the ship. You devalue the lives of the civilians who might be hurt from the debris, or even those hostages, bad as their outlook was, and pretty soon you're no better than Balak or Saleon. Only difference is you've got a badge." Garrus looked like he was about to speak, but Shepard had something more to add. "Just remember, I knew all that today, but god _damn_ did I want to kill that bastard. Sometimes the difference is making the right choice, not the one you want to make. I think that's what I did today. At least, I hope it is."

Garrus was silent for a moment, looking down. He'd hoped to hear Shepard tell him what he tried to do was right or wrong, not a little of both. But after this mission, and the conversation they had just had, he knew that both he and Shepard had been faced with similar difficult decisions. Maybe he and Shepard were more alike than he thought. The idea made Garrus smile. "I think you did, Shepard. Thanks for talking with me."

"Wrex."

"Shepard."

Shepard shook his head with a smile. Greeting each other in that fashion, using only each other's names, had simply been done by accident the first time they spoke, but now it seemed to simply be their thing. "I was hoping you might tell me a little more about your people."

Wrex scowled. "Well, there was that time the turians nearly exterminated us. That was fun."

Shepard sensed he'd trod on dangerous ground, and tried to extricate himself with a commiseration. "They nearly did the same to us, or at least would have without Council intervention."

Wrex looked down condescendingly. "Oh? So they gave your species a genetic virus that leaves only one pregnancy in a thousand as anything but a stillbirth? They destroyed what culture you still had and left you to slowly dwindle into extinction as nothing but mercenaries and thugs?"

Shepard raised his arms in apology. "I suppose that is a fair bit different. Didn't mean to offend."

Wrex snorted. "Of course not. No one tries to offend a krogan. No one smart, anyways. Let me tell you something, Shepard: there are only two kinds of people we'll be fighting. The first kind is on Saren's payroll. Killing them is business. The other kind is just plain stupid. Killing them is a favor to the galaxy."

Shepard chuckled despite himself. He tried not to take killing lightly, but Wrex was so cavalier about it, and so dryly humorous, it was hard not to laugh about it around him. "So is it hard to work with a turian on the team?"

Wrex shrugged. "Not too hard. You just get used to working with all kinds as a mercenary. Hell, I'd still probably take Garrus over another krogan."

Shepard was surprised. ""Not a fan of your own people?"

"Long story," Wrex said absently. "But most krogan don't care about trying to recover from the genophage. They only want to fight. They've turned their back on everything, even their own traditions. My own father, besides trying to kill me, sold my grandfather's ancestral armor after the Rebellions. When we turn our back on our own history and family, it's hard to imagine us ever recovering."

"What happened to your father?" Shepard asked, though he had a guess.

"Killed him when he tried to murder me. We were in the damn Hollows, a sacred place if our people have one, and he didn't even care. Didn't feel too bad about killing him. Hell, I feel worse about my family armor."

Shepard shook his head. Wrex's life had apparently been even more difficult than he let on. "Any idea what happened after your father sold the armor?"

"Heard some scumbag turian 'legitimate collector' has it now. He's just a pirate, in truth. Steals krogan artifacts just to lord it over us that he has 'em."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "I see. So you'd want to see your grandfather's armor back in krogan hands?"

"Of course, but that's not something either of us can just do with a wave of our hands, Shepard."

Shepard shook his head. "That's where you're wrong, Wrex. Antiquities crimes are heavily punished. I can't say it would be immediate, but if we've got time or it's on our route, I'd be happy to stop by explain the laws to him—if you know where he is."

Wrex smiled a toothy grin. "I like your style, Shepard. I'll let you know what I find."

"Shepard. It's Admiral Kahoku," Tali said quietly as they lowered the containment shields in the Cerberus base. The rear admiral had become acquainted with them when Shepard discovered one of his marine platoons massacred by a thresher maw, apparently lured there. It was all too reminiscent of the Alliance's first encounter with the massive, 100-meter-long predatory worms, when an entire frontier team had disappeared. A detachment of marines had gone to investigate, and they had stumbled upon not one but several of the beasts, wiping out the squad. Kahoku's men had fared no better.

Kahoku had managed to discover that an organization called Cerberus was responsible by contacting the Shadow Broker. Kahoku had contacted the Normandy to tell them what he had discovered: Cerberus was a former Alliance black op that had gone rogue some time ago. Even when it was technically legitimate, it had an unsavory reputation among those in the know, with a reputation for preferring radically pro-human agents. That seemed to have only increased after Cerberus split with the Alliance. The dossier Admiral Kahoku had sent listed a number of assassinations and terrorist actions as well as more unusual things, like highly unethical but cutting-edge scientific research, as having been linked to Cerberus, but the Admiral had said the information he was able to afford was only the tip of the iceberg. He had been on the run when he contacted them, with Cerberus agents in hot pursuit. Kahoku had only been able to give them the location of a Cerberus base before their agents had caught up with him. He lay on the floor, not harmed by any of the horrific genetic abominations Cerberus had kept penned there but rather by the profusion of needle marks on his skin. Cerberus' interest in science seemed to leave their enemies to face a grim fate—experimented to death. Shepard turned to Tali. "Any info on that console?"

The quarian nodded. "Locations for several other bases."

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "Send them to Hackett. Tell him to use orbital bombardment. I don't even want ashes left for these bastards."

The Normandy sat in orbit around Feros as Shepard briefed the team. What had initially been put on the back burner as a lower-priority mission thanks to the infrequent reports of occasional geth sightings had shot up to emergency level when all contact with the colony had been cut off following a message about a massive number of geth. "There's a dock here, so we won't need the Mako. That means everyone goes ashore. We may split up once we're down there. We don't know much other than that they reported geth shortly before dropping out of contact."

Wrex smacked his chest. "Let's get down there, Shepard. I'm ready for some real action."

Shepard smirked. "Not wearing your family armor, Wrex? After all the work I went through to get it?"

"Ha!" Wrex roared with laughter. "That pile of scrap didn't even have shield emitters! And I was there, too. Those mercs weren't much of a challenge, Shepard, so don't whine about how much work it was!" In truth, Wrex was hardly lying. The artifact thieves had opened fire on sight, and Shepard and his squad had responded in kind, to far greater effect. The turian thief had gone down fighting, and Wrex had retrieved his family armor while Shepard alerted Council authorities to the location of the stash.

Shepard smiled and shook his head. His chats with Wrex had proved that the krogan was far from a simplistic brute. He was cunning, thought ahead, and knew a lot more about any situation than he let on.

The approach revealed that the colony of Zhu's Hope was built in the ruins of an ancient Prothean skyscraper, its "ground" above the low-lying clouds of Feros. The Normandy docked, and as soon as the airlock cycled, someone was waiting for them. "We saw your ship," he said. "Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately."

"Who's Fai Dan?" Shepard asked, eyes narrowing at the strange hitches in the man's speech.

"He's our leader. He wants your help to prepare for the geth. They're making another push. Please. Up the stairs, past the freighter."

He signaled over his shoulder, drawing Shepard's eyes that way. They widened as he saw a geth aiming a rocket launcher at them. ""Get down!" Shepard yelled as the team dove for cover, but the colonist wasn't fast enough. The rocket exploded as it struck him, blasting his corpse to the end of the dock. Shepard leaned out of cover and fired his pistol, blasting the geth rocket trooper down.

More geth swarmed around the corner, and the squad gunned them down, advancing to the corner, turning it to find geth shock troopers deploying energy shields. Tali, Kaidan and Garrus attacked with overloads while everyone else fired at any exposed geth, and soon the synthetic welcoming party was destroyed. They climbed some stairs and came around a corner to find sunlight streaming through an opening. Several frightened colonists popped out of cover, guns aimed at them, but they lowered them when they realized that Shepard and his squad were not geth. Strangely, though, they did not express gratitude or even seem to really react to the team's arrival. Shepard's eyebrows came together in confusion. He'd never seen people so completely ignore a rescue. He signaled the team to huddle up. "Something's off here. That guy who greeted us sounded weird, and these people should be begging us to get them off planet or get rid of the geth."

"Their body language doesn't indicate that they noticed us any more than to notice that we weren't geth," Tali added.

"My first thought was stims, since they've been having to be on guard around the clock, but they're too relaxed. I've seen people on stims; this is different," Garrus supplied.

"So whaddya want us to do, Shepard?" Wrex inquired.

"Just keep your eyes on these guys. Until we figure out what's going on, they're a potential threat, but we're not going to just assault them because of a suspicion."

They moved cautiously through the remains of the freighter that sat in the middle of the colony and headed towards a man who stood with an armed and armored woman. The man turned to them and signaled them over. His face, as much as his name, marked him as being of Chinese descent. "Oh, Commander. I'm glad they finally sent someone to help us."

"You're a bit late, aren't you?" The woman said bluntly, her voice hitching even more noticeably than the now-dead greeter's had.

"Arcelia!" Fai Dan scolded. "Sorry, Commander. Everyone's on edge since—"

"Watch out!" the woman yelled, gesturing with her assault rifle. A group of geth were coming through the doorway into the ancient tower. "We've got geth in the tower!"

"Protect the heart of the colony!" Fai Dan yelled. Eerily, every colonist, even the token salarian they'd seen, responded in the same moment with mechanical efficiency, readying weapons and moving to cover that blocked any approach to the downed freighter.

Shepard unleashed an overload program, its electrical blast downing the two geth in the doorway. As the rest of the team engaged the geth, he dropped back next to Garrus. Since their discussion after the mission at Terra Nova, the turian had rapidly become his close friend and effectively his second-in-command on the ground team. "Garrus. Did you hear what Fai Dan said?"

The turian looked over and nodded. "Yeah. You thought it sounded odd too, huh?"

"Very. Why 'the heart of the colony?' Why not just 'the colony?' Hell, why not 'hold the line?' We've heard people yell that often enough."

Garrus chuckled dryly. "No kidding. It's like there's something within the colony that they're more interested in saving than even the colony itself."

Shepard glanced out of cover in time to see Ashley gun down the last geth at their level. He stepped forward. "Okay, we'll send a group in to clear them out at the source. Garrus, you, Ash, Liara, and Kaidan stay here and make sure no geth come up behind us or anything. Tali, Wrex, you're with me."

Tali nodded and clutched her shotgun tightly, while Wrex chuckled. "This'll be fun," he rumbled.

The trio headed through the doorway and up the stairs, where a colonist was pinned behind cover by waves of geth fire. "God, I don't wannna die…please don't let me die!" he moaned piteously.

Shepard made a quick hand signal to Tali, and they snuck up to the doorway at the top of the stairs, then jumped around the corner, both unleashing overloads. The nearest geth were overwhelmed, while the rest paused, apparently confused. Wrex rounded the corner and charged forward, his shotgun roaring as he blasted the geth. This assault took out the last of the geth, and Shepard signaled the colonist, who bolted down the stairs and back to the colony.

The three pressed on, coming to a large room with a raised area on one side. It was filled with geth, and through a hole in the roof, a dropship was visible. No doubt more platforms would be headed down soon. All three drew their shotguns and prepared to charge, Wrex and Shepard using their biotics to bring up barriers to supplement their shields. Tali set up a shortcut for her shield boost on her omni-tool, then they ran in. The geth were not expecting such a brazen assault, and took moments longer to respond than usual—moments that proved crucial, allowing the squad to reach cover before the geth could break through their shields.

They took a moment in cover to collect themselves, hearing the unmistakable sound of more geth dropping into the room. Shepard and Tali let loose with overloads on any geth standing too close together, while Wrex fired a overcharged blast from his shotgun, ripping apart a destroyer. Shepard popped out of cover and ran at the second destroyer, his shotgun firing. His shields flared to life as the geth's fire impacted, but held firm as Shepard continued to fire, not stopping until his shotgun's thermal clip hit capacity as the geth collapsed, countless holes ripped through its body. The dropship, courtesy of the geth neural network, was now aware that any further drops into the room would be met with heavily armed resistance. There was a roar of engines activating, and the ship lifted away.

They made their way back to Fai Dan and the rest of the squad, who appeared visibly relieved that they were all fine. Fai Dan bowed slightly. "The tower's secure. Thanks to you, Commander."

"I'm just glad your colony's still safe," Shepard replied.

"I appreciate your concern…and your efforts against the geth," Fai Dan said.

"They may have been slowed, but they'll be back. They always come back," Arcelia said, emotion making her voice more normal, but still with a strange quality to it.

Shepard chose to ask a question just prodding enough to potentially get some information. "Help me find out what the geth are after and you'll all get out of here alive."

Fai Dan, though, gave nothing away. "We don't know what they're after. They came, they attacked us, that's all we know." His voice sounded a bit more strained, though. "Their main base is at the ExoGeni headquarters. A good place to start looking if you want answers."

Shepard had heard about ExoGeni in the mission brief; a biotech company that had funded the colony of Zhu's Hope as part of its efforts to unearth Prothean secrets from Feros' skyscrapers. "The skyway leads directly to ExoGeni headquarters. You can't miss it," Arcelia explained.

"Of course, there's an army of geth between here and there," Fai Dan pointed out.

"I didn't expect this would be easy," Shepard said dryly.

"Then maybe I can get this colony operational again," Fai Dan said with a similarly wry smile. "We could use any help you can offer with that."

Shepard thought for a moment. "Okay, Kaidan and Wrex, switch places. Garrus, you're in charge of the squad here. I want you guys to help out with anything the colony needs to get back on its feet. Kaidan and Tali, I'm calling Joker to deliver the Mako onto that skyway. Let's see what ExoGeni has for us."

Garrus nodded. "Wish I was coming with you, but we'll do what we can here. Snipe one for me, will you?"

Shepard smirked. "You know it. Now let's move!"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The Mako thundered down the skyway, Kaidan manning the cannon, blasting at armatures, while Shepard drove aggressively, crushing the smaller geth beneath the enormous tires. As they motored on, Tali caught Shepard's attention. "Shepard, I'm picking up radio transmissions. They're close."

"Put them on the speakers," Shepard ordered.

Tali pressed a button and the static-filled message flared to life. "Any sign of movement? Lizbeth could still be in there!" the response was unheard, but it clearly displeased her. "She's my daughter! I'll wait as long as I have to!"

"Sounds like it's ExoGeni staff," Shepard said. "Probably holed up somewhere outside the tower. If we're lucky, we'll encounter them."

Shortly thereafter, they entered a covered area, and the voice on the radio spoke up again. "We've got movement…some kind of vehicle. Not the geth."

"If they've got a visual, we must be close…ha! Got you!" Tali exclaimed. "Right over there, Shepard! That ramp down. That's where the signal's from."

The three got out of the Mako and headed cautiously down the ramp Tali had indicated. A number of human guards, the ExoGeni logo emblazoned on their armor, stood at barricades, but they made no effort to challenge them.

A thin man, Chinese like Fai Dan and dressed in a scientist's outfit, was less at ease, though. "That's close enough!" he squealed.

"Relax, Jeong," an older woman said, her voice familiar from the radio. "They're obviously not geth."

"Get back, Juliana!" he snapped before turning to Shepard. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"Commander Shepard. We're here to remove your geth problem," Shepard said sarcastically.

"You see? You worry too much," the woman, Juliana, said.

"And you trust too easily, Juliana!" Jeong retorted, casting an uneasy glance at Tali.

"I'm just glad to see a friendly face. I thought we were the only humans left on this planet," Juliana said dryly.

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Fai Dan and some of the members of Zhu's Hope are still alive. You didn't try to contact them?"

Juliana stared at Jeong, shock and anger on her face. "I thought you said they were all dead!"

"I said they were _probably_ all dead," Jeong corrected.

"Not dead, but those geth haven't gone easy on them," Kaidan said quietly.

"We know what that's like," Juliana agreed.

"No you don't," Tali whispered, unheard by the ExoGeni scientists.

"Those damn synthetics are relentless," Juliana continued.

"I'll do whatever I can to keep them away from you. But I need some information," Shepard reassured her.

"What kind of information?" Jeong asked, instantly filled with suspicion.

Juliana rolled her eyes. "Ignore him. The geth are up in the ExoGeni headquarters. It's just a little further up the skyway."

"Those headquarters are private property, soldier! Remove the geth and nothing else!" Jeong stressed.

"We're not here to steal from you! We're here to get rid of the geth!" Tali exclaimed angrily. "We're helping you, you _bosh'tet_!"

Shepard nodded. "We're not interested in corporate secrets, so just calm down."

Juliana raised her hand. "Commander, before you go…my daughter, Lizbeth. She's missing…"

"They shouldn't waste time poking around," Jeong scolded callously. "We can do a proper accounting of our casualties after the geth are gone."

Juliana's eyes flared in anger, but Shepard beat her to the punch. "You'd best shut the hell up. You're starting to piss me off. Juliana, we'll do what we can. Where was your daughter last?"

"She was working in the ExoGeni building when the attacks hit."

Jeong looked like he wanted to say something, but he thought better of it after a glare from Shepard. "If she's in there, I'll get her out."

Juliana's thanks echoed as they headed back to the Mako and to the ExoGeni headquarters.

"Okay, so who here was creeped out by the crazy dude in the tunnels?" Ashley asked.

"He was…certainly unusual," Liara admitted.

Garrus nodded. "We'll definitely be asking Fai Dan about that. This colony is hiding something."

As they emerged from the tunnels, they stopped in their tracks. Every colonist in view had stopped and looked at them at exactly the same way, their eyes cold. Appraising them. Sizing them up.

"Well, I'm glad that wasn't creepy or anything…" Garrus sighed as the colonists turned mechanically back to what they were doing.

They headed over to Fai Dan. Wrex was the first to speak. "We killed some varren for you, got your water running, destroyed a geth transmitter—guarded by other krogan, I might add—and picked up power cells for you. What do we get in return?" he demanded, immediately slipping into his brusque mercenary role.

"I happen to have some credits lying around for situations that require hired help. You're welcome to that," Fai Dan responded, bringing up an omni-tool. "There, I've deposited it to the Alliance. They'll forward the money to the Normandy. I trust the commander will distribute it. Is that all you needed?"

"Actually, we were hoping you might be able to give us some information," Garrus said.

"I'm afraid I told your commander, I don't know what the geth want," Fai Dan said quickly.

"Well, see, there's some questions I have besides that. See, we found one of your people down in the tunnels. I believe he said his name was Ian Newstead?"

Fai Dan nodded. "Ian. He is very sick. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything for him. Believe me, we've tried."

"Really?" Garrus said skeptically. "He seemed insane, yes, but the pattern…urk!"

"Thank you, that will be all!" Ashley said as she dragged Garrus off.

"Ashley, what the hell?" Garrus exclaimed a short distance away.

"Okay, I know human body language is different than turians', but—"

"I know that!" Garrus interrupted angrily. "I was in C-Sec, remember? Fai Dan knows more than he's saying. It was obvious!"

"That's great. But he was also _clearly_ not gonna talk," Ashley pointed out.

"I could've gotten him to!" Garrus retorted.

"You think the colonists would've let you pump their leader for info? Damn, turian, have you not seen the creepy hive-mind thing they're doing?!" Wrex chuckled.

"We should contact Shepard," Liara said. "Give him this information and ask for orders."

Garrus looked like he wanted to argue, but backed down. "Fine. Calling Shepard."

Shepard responded quickly. "Garrus?" his voice crackled through a disturbing amount of static. "Is something wrong?"

"You could say that, Shepard," he admitted. "You remember how…weird and creepy everyone was? It's getting worse."

There was a long pause from Shepard's end. "Worse how?"

"Nothing overt, but the creepy looks and stuff are more common. Plus…well, it's just a feeling. And all of us have it."

Shepard sighed. "Understood. Get back to the Normandy. Make sure the ship's secure. Just do your best not to hurt any colonists if they do something strange or resist. Oh, and we'll probably be out of communication. Looks like even military-grade short-range comms aren't going to be able to punch through this jamming if we get much closer to the source. And we'll be doing just that."

"Roger that, Commander," Garrus said, then closed the connection. "You heard him, people. Back to the Normandy."

Shepard shook his head as they pulled up to the ExoGeni building. "This just keeps getting better…I'm starting to think we need to hunt down all that information Jeong didn't want us to find."

"No argument here, Commander," Kaidan said as he climbed down from the turret.

They disembarked and headed inside, their tech powers clearing out the few geth left after Shepard had pulled the Mako all the way up to the door and Kaidan had blasted away with the cannon a few times. A barrier, not unlike the ones on Therum, stood in their way, with no convenient mining lasers to circumvent it. The curtain blocked access to the rest of the building.

All access except…

"That looks like a one-way trip, Shepard. Are you sure this will work?" Tali asked, concern evident in her voice as she looked at the hole in the floor.

"Nope," Shepard grinned. "But it looks like all we can do." He hopped down, closely followed by Kaidan, shaking his head. Tali paused at the edge of the fifteen-foot drop, but finally jumped down.

They moved through the rubble-strewn corridor and into a large room, almost like a hangar or garage of some kind. With no cover, they were cautious as they prepared to cross the wide-open floor. As they entered, though, a shot rang out and Shepard's shields flared. All three swung weapons around…and found themselves staring at a terrified young woman in a scientist's outfit, holding the pistol.

Her eyes widened as she realized her error. "I'm so sorry! I thought you were geth, or one of those varren!"

Shepard smiled to put her at ease. "No autopsy, no foul. You're safe now. But why were you here in the first place?"

The woman sighed. "It's my own fault. Everyone was running and I stayed to back up data. The next thing I knew, that geth ship latched onto the building and the power went out. I was trapped. I tried to get out, but the way was blocked."

"We'll get you out as soon as we find out what the geth are after," Shepard assured her.

"It's not the geth keeping me in here; it's the energy field they put up. They don't want anyone else getting access to the—" she suddenly cut off and looked down.

Given Jeong's earlier secrecy and the strange behavior of the colonists, Shepard was getting upset. He did his best to stay calm. "I'm here for the geth. It's _very_ important I find out what they're after," he said through clenched teeth.

The woman was still looking down as she gulped. "I don't know for certain, but…I'm guessing they're here for the Thorian."

"Thorian?" Tali asked.

"Never heard of that. What the hell is it?" Kaidan followed up.

"It's an indigenous life-form. ExoGeni was…studying it," the woman explained.

"What else can you tell me?" Shepard asked intensely. "Do you know where I can find this Thorian?"

The woman was clearly unwilling to give a straight answer. "I…might be able to. But not with these geth crawling everywhere. Look, we need to get out of here, past that field!"

Shepard rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Fine. Do you know how we can shut it down?"

"No, not exactly, but I think the geth ship is powering it. I've noticed the geth laying power cables everywhere. You could follow those cables, but there's geth all over the place."

Shepard nodded. "Understood. By the way…you wouldn't happen to be named Lizbeth, would you?"

The woman looked shocked. "Yes…how did you know?"

"We ran into your mother. She's holed up with some others on the skyway," Shepard explained.

Lizbeth smiled, relieved. "She's alive? Thank God. I thought I was the only one left. Please, Commander. Just get that field down so I can see my mother again."

Shepard nodded. "Will do."

Lizbeth pulled something out of her pocket and held it out. "Here, take my ID. It should get you through any locked doors." Shepard took the proffered card.

They crossed the room and headed up some stairs. Partway up, they heard an unmistakably krogan voice. "Stupid machine! Access encrypted files!" They all drew shotguns and moved slowly and carefully up the stairs. Whatever the krogan was talking to responded too quietly for them to hear, but it was clearly not to the krogan's liking. "No, I don't want to review protocol!"

They rounded a corner on a landing and finally saw the hulking reptilian alien. He was speaking to a holographic VI interface shaped like a man. "I am unable to comply. Please contact your supervisor."

"Damn it! Tell me what I want or I'll blast your virtual ass into actual dust!"

"Please contact your supervisor for a level 4 security exemption or make an appointment with—"

"STUPID MACHINE!"

The krogan froze as the VI continued. "If there is nothing else, please step aside. There is a queue forming behind you for the use of this terminal."

The krogan turned slowly, dangerously, its glaring eyes falling on the squad. "Shit," Shepard hissed.

The krogan charged with a roar while all three of them opened fire. The krogan barely slowed as the shotgun rounds impacted. Kaidan and Shepard looked at each other and nodded before unleashing a pair of biotic projectiles. Their raw force was enough to stagger the krogan, and Shepard was quick to exploit the opening. "Kaidan! Lift!"

The human nodded and activated his biotics again, and the krogan looked confused as he floated into the air, struggling like a child who didn't know how to swim suddenly thrust into a pool. Tali and Shepard both ran up close to the krogan, unleashing a pair of vicious close-range blasts from their shotguns. Those were enough to reduce the krogan's head to pulp barely held together by his head plate, and the corpse fell out of the sky with a sickening thud.

Shepard put his shotgun away and approached the VI terminal. "ExoGeni Corporation reminds all staff that the discharging of weapons while on company property is strictly forbidden," it said with a calmness only a VI could manage. "Welcome back, research assistant Elizabeth Baynham. What can I do for you?"

"What information was the last user attempting to access?" Shepard asked, hoping that his obviously male voice wouldn't allow the system to recognize that he was not in fact Lizbeth.

"Fetching data. The previous user was attempting to access details on the study of Subject Species 37, the Thorian."

"Tell me everything you told the krogan," Shepard ordered, filing away the information that ExoGeni had lax security precautions in case of future needs.

"I was unable to provide the previous user with any relevant data," The VI replied. Shepard cursed the literal nature of the program. "Aside from lacking proper access, there has been no new data available on Species 37. All sensors monitoring the observation post at Zhu's Hope have been inactive for several cycles."

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "What does Zhu's Hope have to do with the Thorian?"

"Species 37 is located within the substructure of the Zhu's Hope outpost," the VI answered with that disturbing calmness.

"Tell me everything you have about the Thorian," Shepard said urgently.

"The Thorian is a simple plant life-form that exhibits a sentient behavior uncommon with other flora. Through dispersion and the eventual inhalation of spores, it can infect and control the behavior of other organisms, including humans." Shepard's jaw was slowly dropping in horror as the VI continued. "The Zhu's Hope control group has yielded interesting results. Before sensors went offline, nearly 85% of all test subjects were infected."

Shepard's fists clenched. "Are you saying ExoGeni _knew_ its people were being infected?" he growled.

"It was deemed necessary to assess the true potential of Species 37." The VI's response, delivered without tones of defense or callousness, was damningly simple.

"That explains why the colonists were acting so strangely," Kaidan said with a sigh.

"We should probably warn the Normandy," Tali added.

"Glad we told Garrus and his team to head back to the ship," Shepard said as he activated his radio. "Joker." He paused, frowning. "Come in, Joker." Then he recalled the static during the earlier conversation. He'd been so focused on the geth and now the Thorian that he'd forgotten about the jamming they'd been encountering. "Damn it, the field's blocking it."

"We've got to find a way past that field. We need to get back to Zhu's Hope," Kaidan said, shaking his head.

Shepard nodded and turned back to the holographic man. "VI, what can you tell me about the geth ship and the field it's generating?"

"I have limited data on the geth. They have effectively blocked all sensors within the facility. I have detected unusual power fluctuations, but am unable to determine their source."

"We need to find that ship. Let's move out," Shepard ordered. "And when we find her, we're going to have quite a chat with Lizbeth…"


	12. Chapter 12

_Come on, everybody. I know you want to write a review! I need feedback here! Without reviews my writing will be lacking…calibrations._

Chapter 12

"Keelah…" Tali breathed as the shuttle bay door snapped the claw anchoring the geth ship, causing it to fall into the clouds below. _I hope that hurt, you synthetic bosh'tets_.

"Good work, Commander. The field should be down. Now we can deal with this Thorian," Kaidan said.

Shepard's radio buzzed. "I repeat, Normandy to shore party, are you reading? Anyone there? Normandy to shore party! C'mon, Commander, talk to me! I don't want to have to let Garrus be the new commander!"

Shepard couldn't help but chuckle at that last line. "That you, Joker? What's going on over there?"

Joker's sigh of relief was audible. "We're in lockdown here, Commander. Something happened to the colonists. They're banging on the hull, trying to claw their way into the ship. They're freaking out!"

"Garrus and his team are aboard, I assume?"

"Yeah, got back a while ago, said you sent 'em."

"I did. Don't worry about the colonists. They can't do any real damage. We're on our way back. Just hold your position."

"Uh, yeah. Well, we'll just sit right here and wait for you, Commander."

"Tell Garrus and his guys to stay ready. I may need their help." Shepard turned off the radio. "This place will be swarming with geth in a few minutes! Let's make ourselves scarce before that happens!" he told Kaidan and Tali.

They moved quickly back the way they had come, encountering no resistance. As they reached the door where they had first seen the barrier on their way in, Lizbeth was waiting. "There you are!" she said, relieved. "We should get out of here. I don't think this place…is…safe?" she trailed off as Shepard moved uncomfortably close to her, an angry scowl on his face.

"You knew more about the Thorian than you let on," he growled dangerously. Tali and Kaidan glanced at each other uncomfortably. The commander wasn't going to hurt her…right?

Lizbeth squeaked slightly as she gulped. "I…I was afraid," she protested. "I wanted to stop the tests, but they threatened me. Told me I'd be next!" She straightened up slightly. "When the geth attacked, I stayed behind to send a message to Colonial Affairs! I tried to tell them where to find the Thorian, but the power, and the extranet, cut out before I could send the message. I still have it on my omni-tool!" She opened it, letting Shepard skim over it. His eyes softened. Either she was a master manipulator so many moves ahead that she had made that message as a contingency earlier, or she was telling the truth, and her voice and body language seemed to be saying the latter. "I…I never meant for this to happen." She hung her head.

Shepard exhaled loudly, and Kaidan did so silently behind him. It looked like he wasn't going to have to hold Shepard back. He'd seen on X57 how dangerous it was to push one of Shepard's hot buttons. "Sounds like you did what you could. I'll help them if you can tell me where to find the Thorian."

Lizbeth brightened. "The Thorian is under Zhu's Hope, but the entrance is blocked. The colonists covered it with the freighter just before the geth arrived."

"Clever. But why are the geth after the Thorian?" Shepard asked. "What does Saren want with it?"

"Well it does have unique mind-control capabilities," Lizbeth shrugged. "That's what ExoGeni was interested in."

Before Shepard could respond, the radio buzzed. "Normandy to shore party, come in," Joker said.

"What is it, Joker?" Shepard asked.

"We're getting a LOT of geth comm chatter. Looks like they're headed your way."

"Thanks for the heads up, Joker," Shepard said. "You heard the man. Let's move out."

"I'm coming with you! I may be able to help…undo the mess I helped create," Lizbeth said.

"Of course," Shepard smiled. "We need to get you to your mom, anyways."

As they approached the area where the survivors had holed up, the Mako's radio came to life. "…anybody. Is there anyone picking this up?" Juliana's voice crackled.

"Get away from that radio!" Jeong snarled in the background.

"What was that all about?" Lizbeth asked, her eyes wide.

The radio sounded again. "This is Juliana Baynham of Feros colony, please help us…"

"That's my mom…" Lizbeth whispered as they approached the ramp. "Stop! Stop the rover!"

Shepard did so, but before he could tell her he was already planning to, she jumped out. Shepard cursed and signaled Kaidan and Tali out, then climbed out himself. They headed to the tunnel, then paused when they saw Lizbeth kneeling halfway down, watching something below. They drew their pistols and crouched with her.

Jeong was pacing wildly, while Juliana was glaring at him. "You can't do this, Jeong!"

He put his hands to his head. "Everyone just shut up! L-let me think!"

"You won't get away with this!" Juliana protested.

"Get her out of here!" Jeong ordered, and one of the guards grabbed her.

Shepard and his squad were waiting for an opening, but Lizbeth wasn't going to watch any more. She leapt out and ran down the ramp. "Get away from her, you son of a bitch!"

Shepard cursed under his breath, while Juliana looked up in shock. "Lizbeth?" she said as the guard pushed her towards her daughter.

Jeong looked horrified as he stared at the ramp. "Damn it! Come out where I can see you! All of you!" Shepard was concerned to see a pistol at Jeong's hip that had most certainly not been there before. He kept his pointedly drawn and in hand as he stood and strode down the ramp, intentionally swaggering to appear large and confident. Jeong shook his head when he saw them. "Shepard," he practically spat. "Damn it! I knew it was too much to hope that the geth had killed you. I found some interesting facts about you in the ExoGeni database. I know what you did during the Blitz, but your…_heroics_ aren't needed here!"

Shepard was concerned to see just how hysterical Jeong was, but the VI's words came back to him and suddenly his brown eyes were hard as stone. "Oh really? And you think you have a better solution, Jeong?" he spat.

"I…you don't understand! It's not that easy!" he sputtered. "Communications are back up. ExoGeni wants this place purged."

"This is a human colony, Jeong!" Lizbeth said, horrified. "You can't just re-purpose us!"

"It's not just you! There's something here far more valuable than a few colonists!"

"Valuable enough to kill over, hmm? I don't suppose you're talking about Species 37, are you?" Shepard asked angrily. Jeong's eyes widened in fear as Shepard continued. "You know, the Thorian?"

"The what?" Juliana exclaimed, perplexed.

"It's a telepathic life-form living under Zhu's Hope," Lizbeth said quietly, ashamed. "It's taking control of the colonists there." Her voice grew harder and a fire appeared in her eyes. "ExoGeni knew all along!"

Juliana's eyes matched her daughter's. "You won't get away with this, Jeong."

"So you keep saying," he responded mockingly. "But no one's going to miss a few colonists."

"Evidently you didn't read my file close enough, Jeong." Shepard's voice was like ice. "If you had, you'd know _I'm_ from a colony. The batarians thought a lot like you. They thought no one cared until Alliance Navy hunted them down. Thought no one cared until I slaughtered them during the Blitz. So unless you think you can out-gun a Spectre, you'd best walk away." Shepard knew he could've defused the situation, but Jeong's callousness, including foreknowledge of the Thorian, had pushed him over the edge. He was pushing buttons now. "I won't let you exploit these people any more. Stand down, or we'll see if you're really prepared to use that toy on your hip."

Jeong glared maniacally. "If that's the way it has to be, then come on!" he roared, reaching for the gun.

Shepard's hand was up before Jeong's pistol was halfway off his belt. He paused for only a moment before pulling the trigger, Jeong's blood splattering on the guard who had been holding Juliana when the confrontation started. Shepard's cold eyes focused on the hole that had been blasted through Jeong's shoulder, the close proximity meaning the full power of the round had ripped into the ExoGeni toadie. Jeong's gun clattered to the floor, and he appeared to be in shock as he fell. "You…you shot me!" he sputtered in a pained voice.

"That's what happens when you threaten a Spectre," Shepard snapped. "A full report on ExoGeni's conduct here _will_ be sent to Colonial Affairs, and you'd better believe your name will have a prominent place. Now show a little sense and get that wound taken care of, stay out of the way, and _shut up_." _Or else I won't be aiming for your shoulder, _Shepard's furious eyes seemed to add. As an ExoGeni guard half-carried, half-dragged Jeong over to the back of the room and pulled out a med kit, Shepard turned back to everyone else. Four pairs of wide eyes stared at him, no one speaking for a long moment.

Lizbeth broke the silence first. "Would…would you have shot me if you thought I wasn't telling the truth earlier?" she asked meekly.

Shepard sighed. "No. Bastard had a gun and clearly decided to use it. You didn't." His eyes remained hard. "But with what ExoGeni's done to the colonists here…I'd be lying if I told you the thought wouldn't have crossed my mind."

"As if we don't have enough problems…" Juliana sighed. "Now we're shooting each other!"

"It's my fault. I knew what was going on and I didn't do anything," Lizbeth said, staring at the floor.

"Don't you start. You do good work and you know it," Juliana reassured her. She turned to Shepard. "So what now, Commander?"

"I'll deal with the Thorian, then make sure you're safe," he answered resolutely.

"The colonists won't let you near the Thorian. They'd die first. They're under its control," Lizbeth responded.

Shepard sighed. "What else can I do? I'll try to avoid killing them, but unless you have any ideas…"

"There's gotta be another way!" Juliana objected.

Lizbeth thought for a moment. "Actually, I think there is. You could safely use a nerve agent to neutralize the colonists."

"Like a gas grenade!" her mother exclaimed.

"Releasing clouds of nerve gas doesn't sound like a great idea…" Shepard said hesitantly. "Won't we get caught in it, too?"

"It's not like it's weapons-grade," Lizbeth explained. "The insecticide in the 'gro labs contains trace amounts of tetraclopine, a neuromuscular degenerator. Since the Thorian has weakened their nervous systems, it should act as a temporary paralyzing agent."

"How temporary?" Kaidan asked.

"Probably an hour or so. Enough time to get to the Thorian and take it out," Lizbeth answered.

Shepard nodded, satisfied. "Sounds good. I'll do what I can."

"Excellent. Thank you, Commander," Juliana said. She and her daughter rummaged through crates and worked with the rudimentary chemical lab instruments they had with them, and about fifteen minutes later delivered the anti-Thorian gas grenades. "We'll stay out of your way until you clear a path. Good luck," Juliana said as they left.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The next part of the skyway was uneventful until they reached the doors that led to the elevator back to the colony. There, a hideous humanoid monster greeted them. A single shotgun blast took it down, and it ripped apart, revealing that it was entirely plant material. "Like a…plant zombie, Commander," Kaidan shook his head. "Created by the Thorian to look vaguely human?"

"Looks that way, Lieutenant," Shepard agreed. He turned away from the creeper and back to the two of them. "No hitting the colonists, even if the Thorian makes them fire on us. That's what the gas grenades are for. If you need to, disable them with hand-to-hand. If we tone our overloads down, they should act as stunners, and I've got a taser app on mine. If either of you has one, now's the time." Tali and Kaidan nodded, and Shepard turned on his radio. "Joker, get me Garrus."

"You got it, Commander," Joker said, and a few moments later, Garrus' voice came over the radio.

"What is it, Shepard?"

"Are the colonists still attacking the ship?"

"Yeah, but the cameras are showing that most of them are gone. It's just a few now."

"Here's the plan. We're about to attack the colony. We're using knockout gas, toned-down overloads, omni-tool stunners, and hand-to-hand to disable them without killing them. When we attack, the colonists attacking the Normandy should leave. I want you to give them one minute's head start, then leave the Normandy and hit them from the back. Stay non-lethal. And make sure Wrex understands that a single krogan punch will probably kill one of these guys, so he needs to go easy on them!"

Garrus chuckled. "Understood. We'll back you up, Shepard."

"Good. Shepard out." He turned back to his squad and donned his breather helmet as Kaidan followed suit. "Ready?"

"Ready, sir," Kaidan replied.

"Yes, Commander," Tali replied quietly.

Shepard wondered if she was still concerned about how he'd handled Jeong, but pushed the thought out of his head. Mission first. He hit the controls for the door. "Let's move!"

The garage was filled with the hideous creepers, while a number of colonists fired from the raised area, covered behind barricades. Shepard and his team moved behind the left side of the door, out of the line of fire, and let the creepers run up to them. As soon as they were close enough, shotgun fire ripped them apart. However, a few got close enough to spit a thick, gooey acid that seeped through joints in Shepard's armor and stung his skin. He gritted his teeth as he dispensed medi-gel, forcing his screaming arms to continue firing his shotgun.

Tali screamed as some of the acid struck her and burned through her suit. Shepard blanched. He knew from his discussions with her just how dangerous a suit puncture could be. He jumped to her side, swinging his gun like a club and ripping the head off of the creature. He looked over to see her already using omnigel to patch the spot, and turned his attention to aiding Kaidan.

The biotic blasted one away with a throw, while some distance away another one floated helplessly in midair. Kaidan's pistol, though, wasn't tearing through the creatures quite as easily as Shepard's shotgun, so the commander helped his subordinate out with some clearing blasts, giving Kaidan time to apply medi-gel where some of the acid had burned him.

The last of the monsters dead, they rounded the corner into the garage and stormed up the slope. The controlled colonists fired at them, but the Thorian's control couldn't compensate for the poor shooting of people unused to weapons and combat. Shepard tossed a grenade in their direction as he passed the barricade, activating it with his omni-tool when it was in the middle of the group. Instantly, all four colonists fell, twitching. _Four grenades left._

From there, they rode the elevator down. As they left it and rounded a corner, more creepers rose from the floor, only to be cut down with quick weapon shots. More colonists crouched behind a barricade at the top of the stairs, but another gas grenade brought them down safely. _Three more_. They headed down the stairs and came face-to-face with the same defenses they had used to hold off the geth coming from the tower earlier. Shepard drew his pistol, unwilling to risk a stray shotgun pellet hitting a colonist, as more creepers came at them. He drew them around the corner, counting on his shields to hold long enough to pull the creepers out from in front of the colonists. They did, and as soon as he had a clear shot, he opened fire, at which point Tali and Kaidan did too. The creepers were ripped apart, and Shepard took cover behind the doorframe before lobbing a gas grenade into the barricaded area, leaning back into cover before activating the grenade. _Two left._ When he looked back out, all the colonists were down.

They headed onto the metal pathways that led around the freighter, Shepard tossing a gas grenade to take out the colonists holed up on the far end while Tali and Kaidan destroyed the creepers that stood and rushed them. _Only one left, make it count_. From there, they headed to the big open area where the crane controls waited, their key to reaching the Thorian. Shepard looked over to see a horde of creepers rushing in the direction of the dock, and the colonists facing that way and firing. He tossed a gas grenade at a group of them before charging over to the few remaining, powerful strikes to their necks and pressure points disabling them. _No more gas grenades, but I don't see any more colonists_. He tossed a regular grenade into the crowd of creepers, smiling as the fiery explosion ripped them apart.

"Spirits, Shepard, be careful with those things!" Garrus' voice rang out.

Shepard chuckled as the team that had come from the Normandy met them. "That _was_ careful. You couldn't tell?"

"Goddess…are you…?" Liara stammered.

Wrex laughed. "You still don't get human jokes, huh?"

"No she does not," Ashley agreed, chuckling.

Tali got them back to focus. "Commander, these are the crane controls. Should I activate them?"

Shepard nodded, and Tali pressed some controls. Shortly after, a section of the freighter lifted, revealing an ominous-looking passage down.

"Oh, joy. Are we all going into the spooky tunnel, or just Shepard?" Garrus commented dryly.

"Don't worry, Garrus. I'll have Wrex hold your hand," Shepard shot back as he motioned the team forward.

They all moved towards the tunnel, but Shepard saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned, drawing and aiming his pistol in a quick motion. Everyone else froze and stared at Fai Dan as he shambled forward, a pistol in his hand. "I tried to fight it, but it gets in your head," Fai Dan said weakly. "You can't imagine the pain. I was supposed to be a leader…these people trusted me!" The hand holding the pistol shook as it slowly lifted to point at Shepard. "It wants me to stop you…but I won't…" Fai Dan's face tightened as he raised the pistol swiftly to his temple. "I won't!" he roared as the pistol fired once. The far side of his head ripped away, spraying blood and brains. Shepard lowered his head and his gun, knowing that there was nothing he could have done but unable to chase away the guilt of not having saved him. _Scum like Jeong lives, and this poor guy dies. Where's the justice in that?_ Shepard thought, shaking his head. With nothing else he could do, he signaled the team, and they made their way down, now even more bent on taking revenge on the Thorian.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Okay," Ashley said as they reached the bottom of the stairs and headed down a corridor. "We just have to find this thing and put a few rounds into…into…" She trailed off as they saw a strange, bulbous mass hanging in a large cylinder of open space. "What the hell is that?" she asked shrilly.

Shepard's eyebrow was raised as far as it could go. "That…does not look like any plant I have ever seen," he said, unable to come up with a witty remark for once in his life. "This may be…problematic."

He stepped closer to the Thorian, and nearby tendrils moved. They twitched, coming closer together before an orifice opened. Like a profane birth, a green asari slipped from the opening, covered in the Thorian's stinking afterbirth. The oddly-colored woman looked at them viciously. "Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose. I speak for the Old Growth, as I did for Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It _commands_ that you be in awe!"

Shepard stepped forward, glowering. "You gave something to Saren. Something I need."

"Saren sought knowledge of those who are gone," the asari said disinterestedly. "The Old Growth listened to flesh for the first time in the Long Cycle. Trades were made." Her eyes flashed with the plant's anger. "Then cold ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle. Flesh fairly given! The Old Growth sees the air you push as lies! It will listen no more!"

Seeing that diplomacy seemed to be failing, Shepard let his own anger blaze forth. "I won't let you keep your thralls. Release them, now!"

"No more will the Thorian listen to those that scurry!" the asari puppet dismissed him. "Your lives are short, but have gone on too long. Your blood will feed the ground and the new growth!" She pulled a shotgun off her back, but Shepard's pistol was out in the blink of an eye. It roared once, and the asari's head ripped open, revealing it to be merely plant material like a creeper. Shepard and his team quickly turned to face several incoming creepers, cutting them down in a hail of fire.

Unsure of what to do next, they looked around, and Garrus spotted a doorway. He ran over and looked inside. "Shepard! There's something in here! Some kind of growth!"

The team looked, and sure enough it appeared to be an extremely thick tendril anchoring the Thorian to the wall. Shepard pointed at the bulbous connection point. "Take that thing out! Tali, Wrex, help me cover them from any creepers!" The pair drew their shoguns and opened fire on the creepers that awakened as the rest of the squad ripped the tendril apart with bullets. It finally tore away from the wall, and the Thorian let loose with a horrific scream of sorts.

"That pissed it off! A few more like that and it'll fall!" Wrex yelled as they charged up some stairs.

As they reached the top, a new surprise awaited: another asari clone. This one proved just how dangerous the Thorian's cloning ability was, as she opened up with biotics. Shepard grunted as a biotic sphere smashed into him, driving him back and knocking him to the floor. He saw creepers coming, but Wrex was suddenly in front of him, blasting the zombie-like plant creatures down. The asari clone peeked around the corner, but her head exploded as Garrus' sniper rifle cracked once.

They fought through the area, gunning down creepers and clones and cutting every tendril they could see until finally, with an unnatural screech, the Thorian could no longer support itself. It fell for what seemed like an eternity before a sickening sound, like an overripe tomato falling to ground, rose from below. Suddenly, all the strange sacs on the wall exploded. Bones, some human, some of other Citadel species, and some unrecognizable tumbled out of most of them along with noisome brown liquid, but from one fell an asari, very much alive. Although her skin was blue, her face and markings exactly matched the clones they had just been fighting. Shepard and his squad made their way over to her, guns still at the ready. She had, after all, been one of Saren's.

She shook her head before standing, looking at Shepard in shock. "You…freed me! I…suppose I should thank you for releasing me," she said, clearly somewhat confused from the ordeal.

Shepard decided to try being friendly first. "Is everything all right? Are you hurt?"

The asari shook her head. "I am fine. Or I will be, in time. My name is Shiala. I serve—I _served_ Matriarch Benezia. When she allied herself with Saren, so did I. Benezia foresaw the influence Saren would have. She joined him to guide him down a gentler path. But Saren is compelling; Benezia…lost her way."

"That doesn't seem possible," Liara breathed, stunned.

"Are you saying Saren can control minds?" Shepard asked, somewhat hostile. It seemed almost like a cop-out answer.

"Benezia underestimated Saren, as I did. We came to believe in his cause and his goals. The strength of his influence is…troubling."

"No kidding," Shepard frowned.

Liara shook her head sadly. "Benezia sought to turn the river and was washed away."

"Asari matriarchs are some of the most intelligent and powerful beings in the galaxy," Garrus objected. "How could one fall under Saren's control?"

"Saren has a vessel," Shiala said quietly. "An enormous warship unlike anything I've ever seen. He calls it Sovereign. It can dominate the minds of his followers. They become…indoctrinated…to Saren's will. The process is subtle. It can take days, weeks. But in the end, it is absolute." She looked down, shame in her eyes. "I was a willing slave when Saren brought me to this world. He needed my biotics to communicate with the Thorian, to learn its secrets. Saren offered me in trade. I was sacrificed to secure an alliance between Saren and the Thorian."

Shepard shook his head. "Saren's pretty quick to betray his own people."

"He was quick to betray the Thorian, too," Shiala agreed. "After he had what he wanted, he ordered the geth to destroy all evidence of its existence. Saren knows you are searching for the Conduit. He knows you are following his steps. He attacked the Thorian so you could not gain the Cipher."

Shepard blinked. "What the hell is the Cipher? Why did Saren need it?"

"The beacon on Eden Prime gave you visions, yes? But they are unclear, confusing. They were meant for a Prothean mind. To truly comprehend them, you must think like a Prothean. You must understand their culture, their history, their very existence. The Thorian was here long before the Protheans built this city. It watched and studied them. When they died, it consumed them. They became a part of it."

"So the Thorian taught Saren to think like a Prothean?" Shepard said, finding some small amusement in it. "How?"

"The Cipher is the very essence of being a Prothean. It cannot be described or explained. It would be like explaining color to a creature without eyes. To understand, you must have access to endemic ancestral memory. A viewpoint spanning thousands of Prothean generations. I sensed this memory, the Cipher, when I melded with the Thorian. Our identities merged, our thoughts intertwined. Such knowledge cannot be taught; it simply exists."

"But I need that knowledge to stop Saren!" Shepard said intensely.

Shiala looked at him haltingly. "There…is a way. I can transfer the knowledge from my mind to yours, as I did with Saren."

Liara gaped. "_Excuse_ me?!"

Garrus grabbed Shepard's shoulder. "While I think my concerns are a bit different from Liara's, I have to ask: are you sure about this, Shepard? We don't really know if she's on our side. Who knows what she could do to you?"

Shepard shrugged. "I have to try. If something happens, take her out and just keep working against Saren."

Shiala gulped when Shepard mentioned taking her out, but nodded firmly when Shepard turned to her. "Try to relax, Commander. Slow, deep breaths. Let go of your physical shell. Reach out and grasp the threads that bind us, one to another." Her voice became stronger, more like a chant as she continued. "Every action sends ripples across the galaxy. Every idea must touch another mind to live. Each emotion must mark another's spirit." She stepped ever closer. "We are all connected. Every living being united in a single, glorious existence. Open yourself to the universe, Commander. Embrace eternity!" Her eyes went black and the beacon's visions tore through Shepard's mind again, feeling somehow more excruciating than before. The destruction suddenly given more context. The annihilation suddenly of his own people.

And at the end, a shape, a ship that matched Saren's from his sighting on Eden Prime.

Shepard opened his eyes, surprised as he did not recall closing them. Shiala looked at him concernedly, as did his squad. He raised his head to indicate that he was fine.

Shiala nodded. "I have given you the Cipher, just as it was given to Saren. The ancestral memories of the Protheans are a part of you now."

"Are you all right, Shepard? What did she do to you?" Ashley asked.

"I'm fine. I saw…something. It still didn't make much sense, though."

"You have been given a great gift, Commander: the experience of an entire people. It will take time for your mind to process this information."

"You do not look well. We should get you to the ship," Liara said with a worried tone.

"I am sorry if you have suffered, but there was no other way," Shiala apologized. "You needed the Cipher. In time, it will help you understand the vision from the beacon."

Shepard nodded, but his stance became rigid and his voice harder. "Now that you're free of the Thorian, what do you plan to do?"

Shiala started slightly at his sudden change, but did her best to look him in the eye. "If you will allow it, I would like to stay here with the colonists. They have suffered greatly, and I played a role in their suffering. I would like to make amends."

Wrex laughed derisively. "Of course you would. And when you go back to Saren?"

Shiala bristled. "I will not return to him. I am free of his indoctrination. I see him now as the monster he is."

Shepard watched her closely, calculating from her body language, tone, and eyes. Finally, he nodded. "The colonists will need all the help they can get. They'll be happy to have you on their side."

Shiala looked relieved. "Thank you, Commander. May fortune smile upon you."

As everyone sat in the briefing room, Liara raised her concerns. "Commander, you look…pale. Are you suffering any ill effects from the Cipher?"

Shepard chuckled. "It did shake me up a bit."

Liara looked shy. "I…might be able to help you. I am an expert on the Protheans, after all. If I join my consciousness to yours, maybe we can make some sense of it."

Shepard shrugged. "Don't have any better ideas. Do it."

Liara stepped close. "Relax, Commander. Embrace eternity!" she said.

The visions flashed through Shepard's head again, just as painful as when he had received the Cipher. As they ended, he opened his eyes and saw Liara reeling. "That was incredible!" she said, stunned. "All this time, all my research…yet I never dreamed…I'm sorry. The images were so vivid. I never imagined they would be so…intense." She looked up admiringly. "You are remarkably strong-willed, Commander. What you've been through, what you've seen, would have destroyed a lesser mind."

Ashley rolled her eyes, annoyed with the way Liara was acting with Shepard. "C'mon, get to the point. What did you see?"

Liara looked momentarily surprised, as though she had forgotten anyone else was in the room. "The beacon on Eden Prime must have been badly damaged. Large parts of the vision are missing. The data transferred into the Commander's mind is incomplete."

Shepard sighed. "You sure you didn't come across any kind of clue or hint? Something we might have missed?"

"Everything I saw, you already know," she said apologetically. "You were right about the Reapers. The Protheans were destroyed by a race of sentient machines. I think it is obvious that there is a connection between the Reapers, the Prothean extinction, and the Conduit. But I did not see anything that would help us find it."

Shepard shook his head; another miss. "What's our next move?"

"I was able to interpret the data relayed through your vision. What there was, at least. But something was missing. Saren must have the missing information. Maybe he found another beacon. If we can find the missing data from your vision, I can—whoa…" she stumbled. "I am sorry. The joining is…exhausting. I should go to the medical bay and lie down for a moment."

"Dr. Chakwas should take a look at you," Shepard said concernedly.

"That will not be necessary," Liara said quickly. "I just need some rest. Somewhere quiet."

Shepard shrugged. "Okay. We're done here, team. Dismissed."

As the other filed out, Joker came over the intercom. "I've sent off the Feros report, Commander. You want me to patch you through to the Council?"

"Patch 'em through, Joker," Shepard responded, stepping to the conference area as three holograms flared to life.

Tevos was the first to speak. "Commander. ExoGeni should have told us about the Thorian. It would have made your job much easier."

"I hope you're planning to sanction them over their ethical lapse?" Shepard said angrily.

"The matter has been referred to the Alliance, Commander," Valern assured him. "It is just a pity you weren't able to secure it for study."

Shepard chuckled mirthlessly. "The Thorian liked to enslave minds. Anyone who studied it would have ended up as one of its thralls."

"Perhaps it's for the best, then," Tevos acknowledged. "At least the colony was saved."

"Of course it was saved," Sparatus snorted. "Shepard would go to any lengths to help a _human_ colony."

Shepard bristled. "Being human had nothing to do with it. They were in trouble. I saved the salarian there, too. If that place was full of turians, I would've worked just as hard to save them!"

"Admirable," Valern said. "But sometimes Spectres have to make sacrifices. I hope you're willing to do that when the time comes."

"With all due respect, sir, if I was able to do it without sacrifices, then no sacrifices were required. If they ever are, I'll make them without hesitation," Shepard promised.

"Goodbye, Commander. We'll be waiting for your next report." With that, the Council's forms vanished.


	15. Chapter 15

_Sorry for the delay, readers! I've been rather busy of late, and it's been hard to find time to write. That said, it's a lot easier to push through that and work if I have some feedback to guide me! While my editors have been helpful, I could really use some feedback from my primary audience. On with the show!_

Chapter 15

As the hours after the Feros mission passed, Tali tried to place what was wrong. Overall, the mission had been an overwhelming success: the colony saved, the Thorian neutralized, ExoGeni's crimes exposed, and the Cipher obtained. She had personally destroyed dozens of Geth, to say nothing of the whole team's toll on their numbers. So why did she feel so upset? She hadn't felt so down after a mission since she had nearly died on Therum.

As she sighed and closed her eyes, an image stole into her mind. Shepard, his normally kind face twisted with rage, drawing his heavy pistol and firing it into Jeong's unarmored body. The man wasn't dead, but between the lasting damage Shepard's unhindered shot would cause and the ruinous report on its way to the Alliance, he might well wish he were. With a sharp intake of breath, Tali realized that that was it. That moment had clashed jarringly with the image of Shepard she held in her head. The Shepard Tali thought of was surprisingly gentle and kind for being so potentially lethal. He was thoughtful and curious, keenly aware of his duty to others, even at the cost of his own wants. Though he possessed both unmatched skill at and unlimited latitude to engage in violence, he always looked to it as a last resort rather than a good solution. He was a paragon of right thought and right action.

The Shepard that she had caught a glimpse of on Feros, though, was different. That was a man with terrible anger bubbling under the surface, ready to lash out at any provocation. A man who saw others less as people than things, either tools to use or barriers to demolish, and he was happy to teach them that a stove was hot by forcibly putting their hands on it. The pain and discomfort she felt was the loss of her hero. And though the thought made her uncomfortable on many levels, she knew that there was only one way she would get past this.

She had to go see Shepard.

Tali waited until third watch and made her way to the mess hall. Sure enough, Shepard was there, a small cup in front of him. "Is the Cipher troubling you?" she asked quietly.

Shepard sat up and looked over his shoulder. "Oh. Hi, Tali. Not really; it's just made the vision from the beacon keep running in my head. Not a lot of sense, just…those images don't really say, 'sleep.'"

Tali moved around the table and slid into a seat opposite him. "That does sound difficult. Is it…affecting you?"

Shepard chuckled and half-smiled. "Not that I'm aware of, except maybe making me a little frustrated with the Council's need for more evidence. What's got you up tonight?"

Tali took a deep breath before telling him. "I've…been feeling bad since Feros, and it took me some time to figure out why, but…" She forced herself to stop rambling and get to the point. "It's about Jeong, Shepard. What happened? That was so…"

"Unlike me?" Shepard asked quietly. When Tali cocked her head, he sighed. "You're not the only one it's bothering."

"Then why, Shepard? I've seen you talk criminals and mercenaries down. What was so different?"

Shepard stared down at his glass in silence. "I wasn't always the man I am today," he said finally. "I told you about Mindoir and Elysium. Those things…they left some scars. And a lot of anger. After Mindoir, once I got through the pain and shock…I enlisted because I was so angry. I just wanted revenge. My therapists wouldn't let me go at first, said I was too unstable. It took a few months of work, putting a cap on that hate, to get their approval. And after Elysium, that cap got blown away. The anger came back, even worse. I was…first few levels of N7 training, I was a monster."

Tali was curled up in her seat. The pain in Shepard's voice was even rawer than when he had told her what really happened on Elysium, and her natural empathetic nature was almost enough to make her feel as though it was her own pain. "What happened?"

"Anderson," Shepard said simply. "They assigned him to mentor me, earlier than the program usually calls for one. He was just honest with me. 'Son,' he said, 'you want to know what your file says? It says you're a natural at everything combat related, and a goddamn mess everywhere else. My job is to get that to say you're a goddamn dream come true.' And when he saw that angry look on my face, he stopped my retort dead. 'No excuses. No explanations. No backtalk. I know about your past, and I can see it on your face. You're angry, and you have a right to be. But anger like that? Gets you killed. I'm going to teach you how to take that anger and transform it, make it work for you.'"

Tali's eyes were wide. "So that's how you met Captain Anderson? No wonder you're so close."

"He straight-up saved my life. I'm sure I wouldn't have lived this long without him. One of the ways he helped me was by introducing me to a batarian friend of his. The guy owned a restaurant and was a generally nice, ordinary man. It helped me see how my anger was clouding my judgment. And the biggest thing he did for me was to teach me to see my anger as a warning instead of a guide. I work hard every day to follow that, no matter what. But sometimes I slip. Sometimes I get pushed. And when that happens, sometimes a little of that old part of me gets loose. And it does things that keep me from sleeping."

Without realizing it, Tali had reached across the table and put her hand on his. "It's okay. Everyone has parts of themselves they don't want people see." She swallowed hard but kept going. "I…ever since you saved me, I've had this picture of you in my head: strong and brave and kind. But that image, that perfect hero? No one can be that all the time. Yes, it scared me when I saw that part of you today, but now I understand you more. Now we're… closer…" She trailed off, blushing furiously beneath her helmet.

Shepard smiled. "I'm…I'm glad to hear you say that. Believe me, I try to be that man in your head every day, but you're right. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes. So thanks for sticking by me when I do." He stood up. "In fact, I'm actually feeling quite a bit better. I think I'll try to go grab some sleep. See you tomorrow, Tali."

"See you later," she replied. She could still feel the blush on her face, and there was an indescribable warmth in her chest. She stood as Shepard waved goodnight and closed the door to his cabin and headed for the sleeper pods, a contented smile decorating her face.

_It's hard to see a hero fall, but sometimes…the man you see after is better._

Shepard's throat tightened up as he looked at the parade of numbers on his omni-tool. _01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000_. Over and over again, until they vanished along with the last sparks in the VI's processor. "Tali, did you get those numbers?" he asked, his mouth dry.

"Yes…" she answered, unsure why he sounded so strange. "It's binary, right? Translates to your language, I assume? It's just gibberish in Khelish."

Shepard nodded. "It does. _H-E-L-P_."

Tali's translator didn't help with the letters alone. "What does that mean?"

"Help."

Her translation software was able to understand that just fine, and as the Khelish word hit her ears, her eyes widened. "That…that was no VI."

Shepard nodded. "I just killed a sentient being. An AI, definitely aware. I basically murdered a child."

Tali looked at him in confusion. "So? It was trying to kill us!"

He glared. "Wouldn't you if you woke up in the middle of a fight? This thing probably achieved sentience in the midst of being shot at!"

She glared right back. "And proceeded to kill seventeen of your marines! Do you feel bad for the geth, too?"

Shepard paused. He hadn't considered that. But still… "At least the geth were aware when they decided to join Saren. This thing…"

Tali snorted. "It's a machine, Shepard. It needed to be taken care of."

Shepard sighed as the headed out of the base. "I guess…"

Back on the Normandy, he sought Tali out. "Tali, why were you so upset in that base?"

She spun angrily and snapped at him. "You don't think a quarian might have some sore spots about attacking a newly-sentient AI?"

Shepard was surprised. "Wait. Is that how…the geth…?" His eyes narrowed in confusion. "I thought _they_ attacked _you_! You struck first? Just what happened in that war?"

Tali looked down, too upset to look at Shepard's face. "We found out they were sentient. A geth started to ask its quarian supervisor questions about the nature of its existence: why am I here, do I have a soul. Then more began to do so. They had become self-aware. We knew it would be only a matter of time before they rose up. We were basically enslaving them! But before we could shut them all down, they figured it out. They counterattacked. We lost…everything."

Shepard was silent for a moment. "Well, might as well start with the bad. You realize that was attempted genocide, right?"

"They were machines, Shepard!" she shot back. "Technically, they're not even AI's unless there are enough of them around each other. And do you really think this is what we deserve over that? We lost our homeworld! We have to wear these suits all the time, even with our families! And everyone else in the galaxy hates us for it!"

Shepard looked down, holding out his hands conciliatorily. "I was getting there, Tali. Your people have suffered a lot, more than anyone deserves. I think the decision you made was a mistake, but I can't say it was a mistake my people wouldn't have made in the same place. Your people don't deserve what's happened to them. That doesn't make it right, but God knows your people haven't gotten any breaks."

Tali's glare softened to sorrow, her eyes dropping sadly. "I'm glad to hear that from you, but it's not like anyone will listen. They made up their minds about my people long ago."

Shepard smiled slightly at her. "I didn't. And I'm glad I didn't. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have you with us."

Tali blushed under her suit, her anger forgotten. "I…uh, thank you, Shepard. I should get back to Engineering though…"

Shepard raised an eyebrow in amused confusion. Reading truthfulness or threat from body language was something he had mastered as part of his military training, but he was woefully oblivious to most other cues. "Don't get too comfortable down there. I have a mission that'll be a nice make-up present for last mission and this little argument. Alliance brass wants me to chase some geth out of the Armstrong Nebula. Unless you're too busy down in Engineering…" he trailed off mischievously.

Tali's eyes narrowed. "You're bringing me on that mission no matter what!"

Shepard laughed. "Thought you'd be interested. Be ready in two hours, Tali." With that, he headed off to another part of the ship.

Tali couldn't help but smile as she watched him go, until she realized that fact. Why _was_ she smiling? She'd just been fighting with him, after all. Come to think of it, why had his stance bothered her so much? She had only just recently spoken to him about how special it was to see him as something besides the gilded hero. Why had she wanted to make sure he understood her side, and why had she been so disappointed when his ideas didn't match hers?

The answer struck her in a moment, and her eyes went wide. She'd always been set apart by her parentage in the Flotilla, and so focused on studying engineering that she never would have had time for any quarian boys, even if any had overcome their fear of her father. But some things are instinctual, recognizable even to the inexperienced—given enough time to consider. _Keelah…how in the Ancestors' name did I fall for a human? Maybe _Fleet and Flotilla_ affected me more than I thought…_

The red light of Vamshi-B turned everything on the planet Maji crimson as they stood in the ruins of what had once been the fourth of a series of geth bases. They had faced down numerous geth platforms, including a colossus, as well as a dropship and husks over their four assaults, but they had beaten everything the geth had thrown at them.

Garrus stepped forward to stand next to Shepard on the left. "Strange. I expected one of these outposts to be the main base of operations for this incursion."

Shepard nodded. "Me too. I don't like this…Tali, you got anything?"

"Hold on," she said, working on her omni-tool. "There's a geth receiver nearby that's picking up some kind of transmission. Based on the signal strength, I'd say it's coming from inside this star cluster."

"It must be a transmission from the primary geth base!" Garrus said excitedly. "We can use this signal to lock onto its location and take them out!"

Tali ejected the thermal clip from her shotgun with a meaningful _click_. "Right behind you."

The signal was traced to Solcrum, a small moon in the nearby Grissom system. It was clear as soon as they found the base that it was indeed the headquarters of the invasion; it was guarded by turret-bound rocket troopers and no less than _three_ colossi. The base itself was underground to avoid the punishing heat of the blue star Grissom. There were many geth platforms within, but focused gunfire combined with the tech skills all three shared laid them low relatively quickly. As the final geth fell, music, beautiful and haunting, began to play. Curiously, they made their way to a monitor in the back of the room. A suited quarian woman stood on a stage, her gestures making it clear she was the singer, while many other quarians were visible in silhouette, looking up at her in silence. Shepard's translator was only able to translate some of the song—it must have been ancient and using an old dialect. What he did understand was that this song was a dirge or requiem, mourning the loss of their homeworld. The loss of everything.

Shepard looked over at Tali. It was impossible to see behind her visor, but her squinting eyes and slight shaking movements made it clear she was crying. Shepard put a hand on her shoulder. "You okay, Tali?"

She sniffed and nodded, unconsciously leaning into him. "I'm alright. It's just…seeing a piece of our history like that…and what she sang about…you could tell from her tone that the loss was a fresh wound when this song was recorded." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "Come on. There's probably valuable data here. We need to make sure we get it before the geth can do a remote wipe or something."

In a small back room, they found a geth terminal, and Tali set to hacking it. After a few minutes, she made a triumphant sound, but as Garrus and Shepard turned to her and the computer, she choked.

Shepard had a hand on her back instantly. "Are you okay?"

She nodded wordlessly and pointed to the screen. Shepard looked and saw diagrams of geth platforms, maps of the galaxy, endless lines of code. He whistled. "Would ya look at that…"

"Shepard, this stuff is encrypted, but…the amount of data here is staggering. We could learn a lot from this. We should capture the data and send it to the Alliance," Garrus said.

Tali finally regained her voice, though it was decidedly higher and shakier than usual. "Shepard, I…please, I know you need to send this to the Alliance, but…this would be the greatest gift I can imagine for my Pilgrimage!"

"This is classified Alliance data, Tali," Shepard said gravely. Her heart sank, until his tone suddenly lightened. "And they can bite me if they have a problem with my giving you this stuff. You deserve this. I'll make a copy on the Normandy for you."

Tali was too stunned and overwhelmed to speak, so she simply wrapped Shepard up in the biggest hug her slight frame could manage.

Tali chewed on her lip as she watched Shepard talk with Admiral Hackett about the geth incursion. He'd promised, and she'd even watched him copy the data, but still…a lifetime of quarian distrust of outsiders had left an imprint on her.

Shepard finished talking and stepped away from the galaxy map. He smiled amusedly at her pacing. "You didn't think I'd forget, did you?"

"I…no, uh, sir…but…" she stammered.

Shepard chuckled, then did his best impression of a stern admiral as he drew himself up as tall as he could. "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, are you ready for the final test of your Pilgrimage?"

Tali blinked in confusion. Was this some sort of human ritual they did with their own young people? What was Shepard going to make her do? She did her best to mimic the Commander's tall stance.

"It seems you are," Shepard said, nodding with approval at her change in stance. Then he smiled broadly. "Catch." He reached into his pocket, pulled out the OSD, and tossed it towards her in a gentle rainbow.

Tali didn't move for a moment, she was so confused. When she did, though, her speed and grace as she burst into motion was impressive. She almost bobbled the OSD from nerves, but before it could squirt out of her hands, she closed her six fingers on it, cupping it carefully but securely. She tucked it into the safest of her many pockets before turning awkwardly to Shepard. "I…thank you, Shepard. Those files have information that could be vital to our efforts to understand the geth. It could be the key to helping us reclaim our homeworld!"

Shepard smiled at her, then suddenly froze. "Wait…can't believe I didn't think of this before. With that data, you've got your Pilgrimage gift. Do you want to go back to your people? I'm sure you could find passage at the Citadel. Hell, we might even be able to get you there in the Normandy if they're not too far away…"

"I'm not going back yet," she said firmly. "I'll stay with you as long as it takes to stop Saren." She paused. "My people…_I_ owe you a great debt. One I can never repay. All I can offer you is what you already have: my promise to help you stop Saren and his geth army."

Shepard beamed. "Glad to hear that. I never wanted anything more, Tali."

Tali froze for a moment, then nodded. "I…I'll be down in Engineering. Thank you, Shepard." Shepard raised his eyebrow, sensing her distress, but she was already heading for the elevator. _Keelah…how could he say something so nice and yet so painful at the same time…_

Shepard watched her hurry off in concern. Had he offended her somehow? He shrugged. _Eh, probably just the excitement of getting her gift taken care of._


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

As they approached Noveria, Joker called down. "Approach Control, this is the SSV Normandy, requesting a vector and a berth."

A voice as cold as the weather on the planet responded. "Normandy, your arrival was not scheduled. Our defense grid is armed and tracking you. State your business."

"Citadel business," Joker shot back. "We've got a Council Spectre aboard."

The controller's voice sounded bitter. "Landing access granted, Normandy. Be advised we _will_ be confirming identification on arrival. If confirmation cannot be established, your vessel will be impounded."

"What a fun bunch," Joker observed dryly as the Normandy coasted into the dock. "I think I'll take my next leave here."

Shepard chuckled as he left the cockpit and made his way to the airlock, where the whole team was standing. "We don't know much about what the deal is here. All we know is that there have been a few reports of geth. Be ready for just about anything."

They exited the ship and made their way around the dock, only to be greeted by a security team at the door. A woman with short black hair and narrow eyes held up her hand. "That's far enough."

"We're not here to cause problems," Shepard tried to assure her.

"This is an unscheduled arrival. I need your credentials." Her voice remained just as hard.

Shepard's eyes narrowed. "You first."

A blonde woman standing next to her sneered, "We're the law around here. Show some respect."

"I'm Captain Maeko Matsuo, Elanus Risk Control Services," the Japanese woman answered.

Shepard crossed his arms. "I'm a Spectre. Name's Commander Richard Shepard."

The blonde woman turned to Matsuo, her sneer still on her face. It appeared to be her natural expression. "Load of horsecrap, ma'am."

"We will need to confirm that," Matsuo said. "Also, I must advise you that firearms are not permitted on Noveria." She nodded at the rude blonde. "Sergeant Stirling, secure their weapons."

As the woman took a step, the whole squad either readied weapons or biotic powers. Stirling froze in place before the security team raised their own weapons, creating a tense standoff.

"Citadel authority supersedes yours," Garrus snarled.

"Citadel authority?" Wrex chuckled. "My firepower supersedes theirs."

"I will cooperate with you on matters of procedure, but my gun stays with me," Shepard said, his voice tight.

Before the situation could deteriorate, a voice came over the intercom. "Captain Matsuo! Stand down! We confirmed their identity. Spectres are authorized to carry weapons here, Captain."

Matsuo showed her professionalism by immediately complying and keeping any hostility she must have felt out of her voice. "You may proceed, Spectre. I hope the rest of your visit will be less confrontational. Parasini-san will meet you upstairs."

Shepard nodded at her and led his squad through the doors and up the stairs, ignoring Stirling's murderous glares. As they headed to the reception desk, alarms sounded. "Weapons detectors. Don't mind the alarms," a dark-skinned woman said, her voice matching the one that had resolved the standoff. "I am Gianna Parasini, assistant to Administrator Anoleis. We apologize for the incident in the docking bay."

Shepard nodded. "We appreciate your help."

"You're welcome. You understand, our security chief was only doing her job. One of my duties is orientation of new arrivals. Do you have any questions?"

"There's a lot of guards here, and I know Noveria is a private place. I can't have my investigation hampered." It was not phrased as a question.

"Tread lightly. The Executive Board does everything in its power to protect the privacy of our client corporations, and they can bury you in litigation." Her elegant accent faltered for a moment as she chuckled. "You'd need an asari lawyer to see the case through."

Shepard sighed. "Fine. Has anyone unusual passed through here recently?"

Parasini looked a bit surprised. "Unusual? An asari matriarch passed through a few days ago. Lady Benezia."

All eyes suddenly flew to Liara, whose face was a mask of shock. "Benezia…she is here…" she murmured.

"Can I speak with her?" Shepard asked.

"Benezia left for the Peak 15 research complex days ago. To the best of my knowledge, she's still there."

"Can you tell me how to get there?"

"You'll need to ask Administrator Anoleis for clearance to leave this port."

Shepard frowned. "I'm a Spectre. Why do I need clearance?"

"The Executive Board," she answered. "I suppose you could fight your way out, but that could get…ugly."

Shepard sighed. He was beginning to understand Garrus' distaste for bureaucracy. "Where can I find the administrator?"

"His office is on the main level. Left at the top of the elevator."

"Understood. Can we go in now?"

"Of course. If you need any help, you can ask me at the administrator's office."

As Gianna left, Liara grabbed Shepard's shoulder. "Shepard, I have to come with you. Even if you split the team again, I have to come with you. I have to see Benezia."

Shepard looked her in the eye. "You're sure?"

Liara's gaze didn't falter. "Completely."

Shepard nodded. "Okay then."

Shepard and his team headed towards Anoleis' office, finding a smiling Gianna Parasini already standing at the desk. "How can I help you?"

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Damn, you move fast. I'd like to speak with Anoleis."

"One moment, please." She pressed a button on her console. "Mr. Anoleis?"

The voice that came out was salarian from its sound, and obviously upset by being bothered. "Yes? What? What?"

"Commander Shepard is asking to see you, sir."

The voice sighed. "Right, fine. Come in."

Parasini gestured them around the large block of concrete behind her to the glass door to Anoleis' office. As soon as they entered, the salarian glared. "You will excuse me if I do not bother to stand. I have no time to entertain colonial rubes."

Shepard crossed his arms and glared down. The salarian was unfazed. "You've read my file."

"Only a fool enters negotiations without knowledge of the other party's tendencies," Anoleis responded smugly. "This greeting is a courtesy. I will only cooperate as required by the Executive Board. Businesses come here to avoid the second-guessing of galactic law."

"That sounds awfully dangerous," Shepard growled. "Are you telling me you have no safety protocols?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Anoleis gave a derisive snort. "Do you think a for-profit company would take no precautions against loss of life and material? Project leads have the final say here, not meddling politicians."

"Do you do any business with Saren Arterius?" Shepard asked.

"Agent Saren? One of your Spectre compatriots? He is a major investor in Binary Helix corporation, which is one of Noveria's backers."

Shepard nodded as he digested that. Apparently word of Saren's outlaw status hadn't reached Noveria…or perhaps they simply didn't care about such things here. "I've heard an asari matriarch is here. Benezia?"

"She arrived a few days ago, accompanied by a personal escort and some cargo. She is currently up at Peak 15." Anoleis was looking impatient.

"What can you tell me about her cargo?" Shepard pressed.

"Large, heavy, and sealed. It passed weapons screening. Beyond that, it is not our concern."

"Define 'personal escort,'" Shepard pushed further.

"The phrase is self explanatory," Anoleis shot back. "Bodyguards attending to the safety of her person. Mainly asari commandos."

"Commandos?" Garrus said, annoyed. "You didn't think that odd?"

"_They_ followed all our regulations," Anoleis said pointedly, no doubt referring to the standoff on arrival. "I had no reason to forbid Lady Benezia from taking them."

"What did she come out here for?" Shepard continued questioning.

Anoleis sighed in exasperation. "If I knew, I wouldn't be at liberty to say. She came as Agent Saren's executor. She is here on business for Binary Helix. There were issues at Peak 15 that required Saren's attention."

"I need to see her. Immediately," Shepard said forcefully.

"I am afraid you cannot. Peak 15 is a private facility in the Skadi Mountains. Besides, there is a blizzard in the area. Shuttles are grounded, and surface access is cut off."

"Surface access, you said?" Shepard said with a predatory smile.

"Cut off, I said. Do not make this harder than it needs to be, Shepard. You cannot leave this port without a garage pass anyways."

Shepard and Anoleis glared at each other. Finally, Shepard shook his head. "I have no more questions at this time."

Anoleis delivered a parting shot as they left. "Good. I received a dozen urgent messages while you dithered about."

Shepard stormed out of the room angrily. As he passed Parasini's desk, he heard her voice: "Mr. Anoleis isn't the only one with a pass to leave Hanshan."

Shepard stopped and stepped over. "Go on."

She raised an eyebrow. "You've never worked in the corporate world, have you, Commander? You can't bludgeon your way through bureaucracy."

"So I was told," he said, glancing at Garrus. The turian was wearing the equivalent of a smirk. "And so I now see. I need an alternative."

Parasini leaned in. "Talk to Lorik Qui'in," she whispered. "You should be able to find him at the hotel bar. Can't say more within earshot of Anoleis."

Shepard nodded silently and left, heading for the hotel.


End file.
